UPDATE (Thursday, Oct. 30 at 9:56 a.m.): This morning, Westside Director of Nutrition Services Sharon Schaefer emailed students saying the Café Express payment system is operational once again. 

Due to a recent computer system failure, the Café Express has temporarily become a cash sales only location.

Westside has been using an old system that is custom-designed specifically for the Café Express. The district had been planning on updating the old system in three weeks, but the system started to show signs of failure. Instead of having the district invest money on a system that was going away in a few weeks, they tried to do small repairs that didn’t end up working.

The district is now having a part called the Mother Board, which is the “guts” of the computer system, brought to Westside over night. Westside is hoping that the new Mother Board will put the system back and running for the final three weeks before the new system is installed.

“We are trying to fix the old system enough so that it is not costing a lot of money to the district,” said culinary manager Sharon Schaefer. “We know that a new system is coming very soon, so spending more money on a system we are getting rid of isn’t necessary.”

If the Mother Board does not end up working, the Café Express will have to use cash exclusively for the next three weeks until the new system is installed.

“We were planning on having a new system at the beginning of the school year, but there were upgrades to PowerSchool and other things throughout the entire district,” Schaefer said. “We then said the next time there is a window to update our system we will, and that time is in three weeks.”