PalDelray Beach - Cristian Medina moves his tray topped with a chicken sandwich, potato wedges, apple, and chocolate milk through the cafeteria line at S.D. Spady Elementary School. At the register, the second-grader places his right pointer finger on a pad.
The device shines a green light — automatically deducting money from his meal account — and he heads to a table with his classmates.
"It's freaky how it can read your finger," Cristian, 8, said Thursday.
Grown-ups call it biometric identification. In January, Spady became the first Palm Beach County school to use the technology, familiar to tourists who pass through the gates at Walt Disney World and other major Florida theme parks.
Now school district administrators want to pay $191,174 to put biometric keypads in every school cafeteria, to provide a speedier service line and prevent students from misusing accounts. The School Board will vote April 8 on a contract with School-Link Technologies of Santa Monica, Calif.
"We have to have a more efficient way," said district food service Director Steve Bonino. "We're feeding more kids than we have ever fed."
Nearly 81,100 students have received free or reduced-price meals this year, the most ever, he said.
Local school cafeterias have been using numerical keypads and swipe-card readers instead of cash for many years. Biometric devices are proven to get students through the line faster, said Allison Monbleau, food service general manager.
Under the proposed deal, the district would buy 511 devices at $449 each, while receiving discounts for the bulk purchase and trading in hundreds of keypads it will no longer need.
In 2007, Seminole County Public Schools near Orlando became the first district in Florida to try the biometric devices after receiving state approval. The units work by scanning points on a finger and converting them into a unique mathematical code.
"There's no way a fingerprint can be generated from it," said Dan Andrews, food services director. "It's just a form of positive ID."
After the success of a pilot program at three Seminole County schools, the district added two more schools this year.
"The system virtually pays for itself," Andrews said, adding that Seminole uses a different vendor, Educational Biometric Technology of Minnesota.
Lunch sales rose 17 percent at a high school using the devices, because students enjoyed being able to zip through the checkout line. Also, misuse of student meal accounts was eliminated.
"Kids don't like to stand in lines," Andrews said.
The district found that a group of 30 students gets through the lunch line 90 seconds to 2 minutes faster using the finger- touch device.
Parents are given the opportunity to opt out from their children using the biometric system, but most do not. Officials there assure families that there can be no security or privacy breaches.
At Spady Elementary, just a few parents forbid their children from registering their finger images, said Principal Martha O'Hare.
The school is continuing to use its old swipe-card system as it phases in the biometric devices. The scanner has been a welcome addition, although it has some trouble reading the smaller fingers of pre-kindergarten students, O'Hare said.
Natasha Seifts, 7, pays it the highest compliment.
"It's cool," the second-grader said during lunch Thursday.
Marc Freeman can be reached at mjfreeman@SunSentinel.com or 561-243-6642. -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
