Updated at 5 p.m. with Scott Gross’ comments.
By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
GOFFSTOWN — After rejecting an offer from a local church to pay off all student lunch debt, Goffstown School District Business Administrator Scott Gross is instead taking families to court.
Goffstown’s School Board approved a policy last year allowing Gross to sue families with delinquent debt in small claims court. Around the same time that policy was approved, Rev. Jason Wells at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church offered to cancel the debts. Instead, some families are now being sued by the district.
Wells told InDepthNH.org on Friday he spoke to Gross about the parish’s offer to make an end of year Christmas gift to the district. Parishioners wanted to pay off all outstanding student lunch debt at the end of the calendar year, then estimated to be between $3,000 and $5,000. But Gross was not interested in the offer, Wells said.
Any gift to the district needs approval from the board, and Gross told Wells, “I would speak against it at the School Board.”
Neither Gross nor SAU 19 Superintendent Brian Balke were available to speak when InDepthNH.org went to the district offices on Friday. The two officials also did not respond to a message left for them with staff.
But Gross did later respond Friday afternoon to InDepthNH.org, saying that parents who do not respond to the district’s collection letters and legal threats are to blame.
“Nobody wants to have to do these types of things,” Gross said. “If you don’t get a response, what are you supposed to do?”
Gross claims he only has one open lawsuit against one family for a $1,500 debt, though he acknowledged initiating at least five lawsuits in court. Gross e-filed complaints in court and emailed copies of the summons and complaint to families as a way to get payments, he said. The tactic resulted in most of the families giving the district money.
Gross said when families run into debt, the district will help them sign up for free and reduced lunch and refer them to charitable organizations like St. Matthew’s. The church will help pay off the back debt, and the district will start getting extra state funding for the children in the free and reduced lunch program, he said.
Gross acknowledges he never brought the St. Matthew’s gift offer to the board, saying it would not have helped and the district could not accept the funding anyway.
Many families have a debt balance at some point in the year, between $10 and $20, and the St. Matthew’s gift would have covered bills that would normally get paid anyway. On top of that, the district does not have a written policy allowing it to accept monetary gifts for the food program.
“This is a very complicated issue,” Gross said.
The whole situation could have been avoided if the families had responded to the communication from the district earlier, he said. Gross said parents who do not communicate are not acting responsibly. When asked if the lack of communication, along with the food debt might be a sign a particular family was struggling, Gross said it is not for him to judge.
“I’m not making a judgment on anything other than you need to communicate,” Gross said.
It’s not clear if the St. Matthew’s offer was ever discussed with the Board. Chair Heather Trzepacz did not respond to a request for comment.
At the time, Gross said he was concerned the gift would lead to more families not paying for student lunches, according to Wells.
Gross first informed the Board at the August meeting he had initiated the lawsuits, per its policy. Gross said many families with debt ignored multiple collection letters from the district.
“I’m talking about well over six to seven letters,” Gross said. “We don’t refuse kids meals, and some of them have gotten over $1,500.”
But Wells said his parishioners were more than willing to make sure the debts were paid.
“Part of the confounding nature of this is that it appears Scott Gross did not want us to pay off all the debt, but when it came time to make a decision this summer he decided to pursue these lawsuits,” Wells said.
As for the dollars and cents, Wells can’t see how going to court is a good use of district resources.
“I have to run a church budget, I understand fiscal responsibility,” Wells said.
Some of the small claims cases involve as little as $150, Wells said. After subtracting the $90 filing fee and Gross’s time working on the cases, it does not leave much for the district to collect, Wells said.
SAU 19 includes Goffstown and New Boston, and Wells said there are pockets of rural poverty throughout the communities. While children in poor families can qualify for free or reduced meals at school, those children are reliant on parents or guardians to apply for that assistance. Some parents are too proud to take the aid, or some are distrustful of the government, Wells said.
There are also cases of children in homes where the parents are simply unable to navigate the assistance applications and requirements.
Wells and the St. Matthew’s community are now raising money to pay the debt for any family the district takes to court. So far, the parish is working on about $950 in debt for families who have reached out.
One of the arguments against St. Matthew’s helping that Gross raised with Wells last year, is that some of the families don’t qualify under the guidelines as poor and should therefore be made to pay. A blanket gift for all the debt would be helping people who did not deserve the assistance. But for Wells, that’s not the point. He cited Catholic author and activist Dorothy Day who said, “The Gospel takes away our right forever to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.”
