CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- By December, Kanawha school employees who become delinquent on paying for school meals will have to prepay to eat or choose to have money deducted from their checking accounts.

Child nutrition director Gary Hendricks posed the solution at a school board meeting Tuesday to account for unpaid meals down the road.

Hendricks said 363 employees who are currently in bad standing already cannot charge for school meals. As of Aug. 18, those employees owed more than $20,700 for meals.

"We're going to chase down the unpaids," Hendricks said. "They can't charge anymore."

School board members Jim Crawford and Pete Thaw pressured Hendricks to curb the delinquent bills.

Also Tuesday, board members met in a brief closed session to discuss acquiring property. They did not say what property they discussed. Thaw and Superintendent Ron Duerring said that doing so in open session could have a negative impact on their plans.

"We don't want to adversely affect the price of this property," Thaw said.

In recent months, board members have discussed acquiring property to build a second elementary school on Charleston's West Side.

Late last month, Kanawha school officials floated the idea of condemning property at Cato Park to build the new school, because deadlines are fast approaching and a proposed land swap with the city of Charleston has slowed considerably.

Charleston Mayor Danny Jones has said he doesn't believe the school board is allowed to condemn the land, which the federal government gave to the city to use as a park.

Also Tuesday, Capital High School counselor Lisa Dorsey explained to school officials the work that counselors do to communicate with students who are at risk of not graduating.

Last spring, several students countywide failed to graduate high school but didn't know until late, leaving parents and families upset.

Crawford and board member Becky Jordon believe counselors should tell parents where their children stand and what classes they need to graduate before the students enter their last year of high school.

"I think we need to follow up at the end of each year, make sure the parents are aware, the students are aware," Crawford said.

Board member Bill Raglin argued that more often than not, students know where they stand.

Students fall through the cracks in some cases, Duerring said. But for the most part, counselors are making the effort to reach the at-risk students, he said.

Also Tuesday, Verizon Wireless gave the school board $70,000 so students at Dunbar Middle and McKinley Middle schools can use new handheld computer devices.

Teachers like Stephanie Helman at McKinley Middle School already use cell phones in the classroom as a technology tool, but Raglin and Thaw were skeptical about the handheld devices, which they worried students might use to send each other text messages.

Also, board members said they might ask the state School Building Authority for money this fall to build two or three new classrooms at Andrew Heights Elementary School, said Chuck Wilson, facilities planner and lead school architect for the school system.

With new classrooms, the school could do away with its portable buildings.

Reach Davin White at davinwh...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1254.