GOFFSTOWN, NH — 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, around 10 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.”