Our principal said that field trip fees would be paid this way so that teachers don’t have to deal with money. The fee annoys me.

Sending check or cash to school is not an option my daughter’s ES. They just want us to use schoolbucks.

Anonymous wrote:You pay the fee for school bucks so the school doesn't have to. Theoretically, the money MCPS saves from that should be going to the students/teachers in some form.

Theoretically.

You pay the fee for the convenience of paying online. It's a wash for the school. The school also takes checks for no fee. These days, though, a lot of people don't have checks and MCPS doesn't want kids bringing in large amounts of cash.

You pay the fee for school bucks so the school doesn't have to. Theoretically, the money MCPS saves from that should be going to the students/teachers in some form.

Theoretically.

Anonymous wrote:Just pay the fee you stingy freeloaders! It’s less than two bucks that goes towards running the school that your kid attends! You’re probably posting from a $1000 device

No, that’s not true. The school doesn’t get the money from this! The company gets it. I’d rather donate $50 directly to my school’s media center than have some random corporation get $2 from every parent. Not about being stingy.

Anonymous wrote:Can you save the service fee from my school bucks by giving the money directly to the cafeteria?

“Important

There is a $1.95 convenience fee for each payment transaction.”

Yes, we send a check to the cafeteria instead. Avoids the fee.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry we’re new to this. How do the kids get to use the funds? We got an email from our principal saying the kids can just give their student ID number which I’m not sure my kindergartner can memorize. What do kids usually do?

Same here. My kid is a rising first grader. Seems like the school did not provide instructions on what to do.

I don’t understand about the $1.95 convenience fee. Do you mean every time my kid buys lunch, there is a $1.95 convenience fee? Or do you mean each time we add money to her account and we will be charged that?

If you bring a check, who do you give it to and is the check made out to MCPS? So confused.

No, the convenience fee is every time you add money to your child/children's account. You can put $120 max per child. I was charged $1.95 total for both my kids.

Just pay the fee you stingy freeloaders! It’s less than two bucks that goes towards running the school that your kid attends! You’re probably posting from a $1000 device

Anonymous wrote:Sorry we’re new to this. How do the kids get to use the funds? We got an email from our principal saying the kids can just give their student ID number which I’m not sure my kindergartner can memorize. What do kids usually do?

At my daughter's school they have cards with everybody's student ID number on it and they just hand it to the lunchroom staff and the person runs the numbers through the machine. My daughter thought it was "really cool and it was like having a credit card"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry we’re new to this. How do the kids get to use the funds? We got an email from our principal saying the kids can just give their student ID number which I’m not sure my kindergartner can memorize. What do kids usually do?

Same here. My kid is a rising first grader. Seems like the school did not provide instructions on what to do.

I don’t understand about the $1.95 convenience fee. Do you mean every time my kid buys lunch, there is a $1.95 convenience fee? Or do you mean each time we add money to her account and we will be charged that?

If you bring a check, who do you give it to and is the check made out to MCPS? So confused.

I've volunteered in the lunch room at our school. K kids come in with a note scribbled by the teacher with their name and lunch order. Usually you can't read it so you just ask the kid their name and can confirm at the POS screen. Anyone older than K has to figure it out on their own. But it can all be looked up by name.

Last year with free lunch it was easy peasy. I am going to be devastated this year when I have to tell kids they don't have enough funds to afford what they want.

Not on parentvue yet. We didn’t get a link yet. Only my older child shows up. Will cafeteria take cash?, exact change?

Anonymous wrote:The Student ID emailed to me for my K kid was 8 digits, I am having trouble adding student to myschoolbucks.
My older child has a 6 digit ID, different mcps school, no problem w her school bucks account.
Anyone know if the new kids are getting longer ID numbers or has school made an error? She wants to buy pizza tomorrow…

Check parentvue to confirm the student ID.

The Student ID emailed to me for my K kid was 8 digits, I am having trouble adding student to myschoolbucks.
My older child has a 6 digit ID, different mcps school, no problem w her school bucks account.
Anyone know if the new kids are getting longer ID numbers or has school made an error? She wants to buy pizza tomorrow…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry we’re new to this. How do the kids get to use the funds? We got an email from our principal saying the kids can just give their student ID number which I’m not sure my kindergartner can memorize. What do kids usually do?

Same here. My kid is a rising first grader. Seems like the school did not provide instructions on what to do.

I don’t understand about the $1.95 convenience fee. Do you mean every time my kid buys lunch, there is a $1.95 convenience fee? Or do you mean each time we add money to her account and we will be charged that?

If you bring a check, who do you give it to and is the check made out to MCPS? So confused.

This page has the answers to most of your questions:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/food-and-nutrition/meal-payments/

The convenience fee is only charged if you add money to the account online. If you send in a check to the cafeteria manager, there is no extra fee.

The teachers of the younger grades will have all of their students' numbers, and will often have them written out on index cards, etc. to facilitate the lunch buying process. It'll be fine, and the kids will learn their numbers in time.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry we’re new to this. How do the kids get to use the funds? We got an email from our principal saying the kids can just give their student ID number which I’m not sure my kindergartner can memorize. What do kids usually do?

Same here. My kid is a rising first grader. Seems like the school did not provide instructions on what to do.

I don’t understand about the $1.95 convenience fee. Do you mean every time my kid buys lunch, there is a $1.95 convenience fee? Or do you mean each time we add money to her account and we will be charged that?

If you bring a check, who do you give it to and is the check made out to MCPS? So confused.