The plan for a new lunch card system is still in the works and on track to be implemented for next school year. The hope is to start testing the software this semester, and testing has been confirmed to take place before school gets out.
Mrs. Gina Chiotti, Chief Financial Officer, confirmed that Jesuit is “moving forward with SchoolCafe” after exploring multiple options. Currently, we are waiting on devices compatible with the SchoolCafe System to arrive and then be set up.
The next step is a small student test group, hopefully in May or June, Vice Principal Mr. Steve DeKlotz said. This could include student government members like juniors Wynter Veber and Joseph Penna.
The two are looking forward to the new technology being integrated into the lunch room.
“The system we have right now is outdated,” Penna said.
“I think it will honestly be really helpful and will make it easy for people to be able to reload their cards with points,” Veber said.
DeKlotz confirmed that students will be able to scan the barcode on their student IDs, or possibly also have a 4 digit code, to purchase their lunches. For many students, this is more convenient and preferable to the paper punch cards.
“It’ll be a lot easier to keep track of… I’ve lost so many lunch cards— and that’s wasted money,” Veber said.
“It’s one less card to carry around, and a card that people already have on them,” Penna agreed.
Junior Cam Byles also said that students “can easily lose” the paper ones and added that it could potentially motivate students to keep their IDs on them, which would result in less JUGs.
On the other hand, freshman Joselynn Pham commented that the new system “sounds like a lot of work.”
It’s a possibility that while the staff, volunteers, and students get used to the program, there could be a period of adjustment.
“We don’t want it to be slower (than the current system)… it could be in initially until we figure out the right flow and programming,” DeKlotz said.
Around campus, there has been a lot of talk about the new digital system. Sophomore Julien Lee agrees that the change would be positive and could “cut down the lunch line.”
Junior Hannah Wendler buys hot lunch with her punch card nearly every day of the week and believes improvements to the system could be made to the current system.
“I’m really excited about the update,” Wendler said. The system will also allow students to easily reload money onto their account, while it’s easy to run out of squares to hole punch on the current card. Any amount can be added to a student’s account, while the current paper cards only offer a $30 option.”
Wendler, like Byles, felt that scanning student IDs in the lunch line would work well.
“I think that’s good because I already carry my student ID… it would be a lot easier than carrying around a paper card that everyone loses,” Wendler said.
