ANDOVER - The trip through the school lunch line is about to be easier - and a lot more high-tech.

Students will soon be able to use a debit card system instead of cash to pay for lunch. School officials say the switch will help them track their sales better, help parents monitor their kids' spending and speed up lunch lines that have grown long and crowded.

"It is jammed right now because you've got kids trying to take money out of their pockets and pay," Food Services Director Gail Koutroubas said. "Later, they'll be able to just swipe a card."

Here's how the system will work: Every student will have an account that parents can add money to either by check or online. Instead of paying for breakfast or lunch with cash, the students swipe a card through a reader and the money is automatically deducted from their account.

Parents can keep track of how much their children are spending online and reload the accounts when they run out of money.

"It's a much more proactive way of managing your money," School Committee member Arthur Barber said.

Parents, and food service staff, will also get to see what students are buying.

"We'll be able to pinpoint, 'OK, this lunch is really popular,'" Koutroubas said. "We do that now, but we track it manually and it's very time-consuming."

Andover completely overhauled its food services department this year, offering healthier, fresh food and a breakfast program featuring bagels and coffee. More students are now buying lunch from the schools - 44 percent, compared with 28 percent at the beginning of the year - but that means lines are longer and more employees have to work the cash registers instead of preparing food.

"We want to get the students through the line faster because we're serving more and more," said Evan Katz, the district's business administrator.

The estimated cost of the system is $25,000, but Koutroubas said "it will pay for itself because it will increase productivity."

The ease of the system means fewer employees will have to work the cash registers and can spend more time on their regular kitchen duties, Koutroubas said. The new system also will help protect the confidentiality of students who receive free or reduced-price lunch because they will go through the line and use their accounts like everyone else.

"No one knows whether they're on free and reduced or not," Katz said.

If students lose their cards, staff will have the ability to access their accounts and deduct the cost of their meals that way, too, Koutroubas said.

The district is in the process of hiring a company to provide the system, and the plan is to have it installed in Andover's 10 schools this spring.

Many local schools already use similar systems - and have for a while. Koutroubas brought the system to her last job in Salem, N.H., more than 15 years ago.

"Andover's a little behind the curve on this," she said.

The systems were first popularized by colleges and universities. Now that Andover High sells breakfast and is switching to debit accounts, some parents have said the school is starting to resemble a college atmosphere.

"It's nice to give that feel," Katz said.

And that will help students when they go on to college, Barber said.

"It's one more area that we've now trained them in," he said.