At Heartland, we strive to deliver innovative solutions that strengthen school operations, simplify tasks for parents, and enrich the student experience through our school enablement platform. This includes MySchoolBucks, our online school commerce service that’s trusted by over 30,000 schools and millions of families nationwide.

In summer 2022 universal free meal waivers expired and, due to this change, many school nutrition programs are again faced with the challenge of managing student meal debt. In a November 2022 survey of school nutrition directors conducted by the School Nutrition Association, districts reported meal debt as low as $15 and as high as $1.7 million with an accumulated debt totaling over 19 million dollars nationwide. 

Connect 2023 is almost here! Join us in Nashville March 21-22 or virtually March 27-30 for our largest training conference of the year. This is your chance to learn more about your Heartland products, connect with peers, meet with product experts, and so much more. Here are a few things to look forward to:

As districts start planning for the return of students in the new school year, ensuring the health and safety of staff and students is more important than ever. This new mindset requires schools to rethink some of their policies and procedures, in particular, the way they collect and manage school payments. 

Contactless payments can play an essential role in helping to limit in-person interactions and reducing physical cash handling. Many schools have already adopted an online payment solution that gives parents a convenient way to pay online, while giving staff an easy way to manage those payments.

Here are four key areas where schools can reduce cash handling:

The beginning of the school year is a busy time for parent teacher organizations to raise funds for events, field trips, school supplies, athletics, and more. Fundraisers also help PTO or PTA volunteers get involved with their school community to reach their organization's goals. While raising money can be as easy as requesting a donation, hosting events or contests can increase participation and provide a fun experience for families. Here are some unique fundraising ideas for your parent organizations this upcoming school year: 

Over the last 23 years, Greenville County Schools in South Carolina has hosted their annual Greenville County Schools (GCS) Scholarship Tournament. The event brings in hundreds of participants to raise scholarship money for high school seniors. Since its inception, the tournament has raised over $550,000 in scholarship funds to help over 4,000 graduating seniors. In the last few years the tournament has partnered with MySchoolBucks to help collect registrations and payments online.  

Parent organizations are committed to fostering positive change and improvements in their school communities, and MySchoolBucks wants to help! In an effort to support opportunities for growth and enrichment, MySchoolBucks is excited to partner with parent organizations this school year with the first-ever Reach2Win Challenge.

Every year the Advanced Placement Program (AP) grants millions of eligible high school students the opportunity to participate in advanced courses and earn college credit. AP Coordinators who manage and teach AP Courses have several tasks throughout the year to ensure students are prepared to take the AP Exams in May. Part of this process includes collecting student fees and ordering AP Exams through the College Board.

For the past two years, MySchoolBucks and Heartland School Solutions has provided Growth Grants to school nutrition programs across the country. To date, we have awarded over $100,000 to districts who use MySchoolBucks and helped over 130 food service departments promote their nutrition programs in fun and creative ways, using funds they might not otherwise have access to. In addition to offering our food service Growth Grant program for the 2019-20 school year, we are excited to offer for the first time Growth Grants for before & aftercare programs! 

Schools across the country are using classroom management apps to enhance the education of students and help teachers improve their lesson plans. These apps help teachers better manage grades, student attendance, seating charts, parent communication, and more.