Both the Halton public and Catholic school boards are entering the second year of a pilot project — along with several other boards in Ontario — in an experiment with a system that allows parents to pay for things like their children’s school field trips, general fees and cafeteria food without any money changing hands.

The Cashless Schools system ( www.cashlessschools.com ) is being tried out in Halton at nine public schools and one Catholic school, as well as at about eight other boards across the province.

Halton public board Business Superintendent Steven Parfeniuk, overseeing his board’s pilot project, said the system worked so well at White Oaks Secondary School in Oakville and Harrison elementary school in Georgetown last year that it has been expanded to include seven more sites — Chris Hadfield School in Milton, Aldershot, Central, M. M. Robinson and Robert Bateman high schools in Burlington, Linbrook and Sunningdale schools in Oakville.

“It allows parents of high school students to pay for field trips and other school-related activities either online or by direct debit,” said Parfeniuk, the latter referring to instances such as swiping a student card in the cafeteria.

“Parents can much more easily track (their) money going to the school for expenditures and kids aren’t going to have to bring that $1.50 in for hot dog day,” with less chance of it being lost and a child or parent getting upset about it, he noted.

The switch to a cashless system is also beneficial to school staff, Parfeniuk noted, as there’s less currency, coins or cheques that needs to be counted and taken to a bank.

As for the cost to use the system, the cashless website says fees associated with parent accounts are established in conjunction with the school through whom the Cashless School Parent Accounts are issued.

Some schools have a small fee for active accounts only. If you log in or add money to your account, you shouldn’t be charged, however parents are asked to check with their school’s administrators to see if there’s a fee associated with the account.

Parent runs into glitch

Parent Mike Abraham said he likes the cashless idea but complained that he had problems paying for his kids’ fees at the start of the school year.

“The concept behind the idea is brilliant — set up your children’s accounts on their website, forward money to their accounts, pay for things like registration and field trips. You can even assign your children a personal identification number (PIN) so they can pay for lunch at the cafeteria, not unlike making a direct debit transaction with your bank card, only they use their student cards,” he observed.

However, Abraham said he was unable to pay for anything at first. He said money was set up in cashless accounts for his two daughters at Robert Bateman High School but that it wasn’t accepted at first so he had to write cheques to cover the costs, something he was trying to avoid having to do.

“I was unable to pay for their registrations or their cafeteria lunches due to some sort of glitch.”

He said that to Bateman’s credit it allowed his daughters to have food from the cafeteria anyway.

After voicing his displeasure with an administrator associated with the cashless system website, Abraham said the problems appear to be ironed out.

“It seems to be straightened out now but I’m watching the account closely to make sure it’s not being abused.”

Parfeniuk said he wasn’t aware of any problems with the system but noted “growing pains” are to be expected.

The day-to-day co-ordinator of the public board pilot project said her school has latched on to the cashless concept.

Pam Cottingham, also the business manager at White Oaks Secondary School, said the Oakville high school had about 200 of its 1,300 students using the program in 2007-08 with the number of registrants more than doubling to start the new school year.

“I’ve been to open houses at night for several schools recently and I’ve been at the schools helping promote their cashless system,” she said.

“I’m getting a very positive response with parents signing up and ready to use it or who have shown an interest in it. Every day I go on to check a report (update) and I see more and more parents are using it at all the (pilot) schools.”

The principal at Harrison Public School said the system is also a hit at her school with around 70 per cent of students registered last year and about half of them using the service regularly.

“Those who are using it are absolutely thrilled (because) it’s easy, saves time and they’re not sending money with their kids,” said Anna Drummond. “I think it’s the way of the future. It’s as easy as online banking.”

Halton’s Catholic school board is moving much slower with the student cashless pay system. Christ the King Secondary School in Georgetown is its only school involved in the pilot having begun the service in January 2008.

“We’re not rushing it. We’re not looking for the world right now,” said Paul McMahon, the board’s business superintendent.

“We don’t know where it’s going to go,” he said, noting Notre Dame Secondary School in Burlington and St. Dominic’s School in Oakville are possible candidates to join the pilot project.

The Cashless Schools website says that once you have registered and made a deposit through your bank, it generally takes two to three business days for your deposit to show on your Cashless Schools Account.

Lots of things you can do

You can withdraw money from the account and deposit it into your regular bank account.

You can instantly transfer money online from one child’s account to another.

You can view the items your child has purchased by logging on to your cashless account and viewing the Transaction History page.

You can set a daily spending limit on your child’s account by logging on to your Parent Account and go to School Accounts.

For more details go to www.cashlessschools.com .