Officials look at scanner for cafeteria line

September 10, 2009

Baldwin-Whitehall officials are considering the purchase of a biometric-finger scanning system to pull up student’s lunch accounts to help move cafeteria lines faster and reduce social stigmas.

The system would be purchased for $18,500 through Skyward software, the same company hired to convert the district’s entire system. The software provides several levels of employee, teacher and family access to school district documents within one database.

The finger-scanning system, if approved, should be ready for use by mid-October at the latest, Foster said.

The school board was scheduled to vote on the system yesterday, after the South Hills Record’s deadline.

The new system would help the district with its efficiency and some social problems, said Thomas Foster, director of operations for the district.

On the elementary level, students are not permitted to carry their lunch identification cards during the day. The cards are distributed to the students as they enter the cafeteria for lunch. This process of distribution and collection takes about 90 minutes every day, Foster said.

Using the finger scanner, which recognizes each student’s fingerprint and opens his or her account this time would be reduced he said.

Brentwood School District uses the scanner system and can move eight to 10 students through a register line every minute, Foster said.

“The lunch line is crowded,” said Dori Gorczyca, one of the Baldwin High School student school board representatives. “If people can move through the lunch line faster, they’d have more time to eat.”

About 30 percent of the students in the district receive free or reduced lunches. To do so, they must punch in numbers on the register’s keypad. Doing so is a way for others to identify who receives the discount, Foster said.

Implementing the scanner system would require all students to scan their fingers, so no one would know who receives a free or reduced priced lunch. Also, Assistant Superintendent Randal Lutz said he hopes the anonymity would make it easier for another estimated 15 to 20 percent of students who quality to opt for the discounted lunch.

Student representative Alexis Schaming said she likes the idea because it would eliminate the social distinction.

“This would help students feel more comfortable buying lunch,” she said.

The scanner system would help the district keep better records of stock items, and parents to see what their children are buying, Foster said.

Foster said students would still be allowed to use money to purchase food, but they still would be required to scan their fingers to keep record of the items they buy.

Still, school board members Kevin Fischer and John Schmotzer said if the system is implemented, district officials must communicate with parents and guardians quickly to avoid confusion about the need to collect students’ fingerprints.

The scanner does not store the fingerprint, but rather just recognizes it, Foster said.



South Hills Record, PA