Brinks armored trucks will soon visit local schools to collect cash amassed from hot lunches and sports games, following concerns that loose money-handling procedures could endanger school employees’ safety.

Until now, office and cafeteria workers in the Manteca Unified School District’s five high schools and two-dozen elementary schools have carried cash deposits to the bank by hand, according to district Finance Director Robin Meglan.

"You've got to imagine, with how many sites we have, how many people we had going to the bank," Meglan said. "We’ve been very lucky that we haven’t had an employee injured or attacked or just robbed."

Under the new policy, Brinks will send cash collectors to the schools — once a week for elementary schools and twice weekly for high schools, where an increased number of student activities, sports games and lunch choices make for greater amounts of cash on site.

The service would normally cost the district $2,800 per month, Meglan said, but because the district has recently moved all its school accounts to Bank of the West, the services will be covered by rebates accrued through its business there.

Concerns over school cash-handling procedures were first brought to light in a school board meeting Tuesday, April 8, when Meglan reported that several elementary schools lacked working safes and had been storing cash in locked closets and desk drawers.

The district is correcting this by purchasing safes for those schools and 14 others that wished to have their safes upgraded for various reasons, Meglan said.

No high schools lacked proper safes, according to secondary education director Bob Lee. High school sites are all equipped with both a cash vault and safe.

All new schools are constructed with safes built in, said Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Michael Dodge.

The replacement safes cost between $150 and $250 apiece, Dodge said.