ORINDA — Days before kicking a second grader out of the district for living outside its boundaries, the Orinda Union School District twice denied the Latina girl access to its free lunch program while recognizing that she lived in the city.

It’s the latest confusing development in the controversy surrounding Vivian, the 7-year-old girl who lives with her mother Maria, a live-in nanny, in the affluent city and attends one of its elementary schools.

The school district hired a private investigator who instead determined last month that Vivian lived in her grandmother’s Bay Point house. School officials sent a letter kicking her out but reversed their stance a day after the Bay Area News Group ran an article about her situation.

The district now says the youngster can stay in school as long as the employer of Vivian’s mother becomes her caregiver.

Miriam Storch, who says Vivian and her mother live with her family throughout the week and only visit the Bay Point grandmother on weekends, said the district is using the girl’s residency as it suits them.

“It is ironic to me that on Nov. 4, the district used her residency in Orinda as the basis for denying her application for lunch assistance,” Storch said, “and then kicked her out of the district a week later, citing residency in another city as the basis for her removal.”

The district ruled that Vivian did not qualify for the district’s free lunch program because her mother’s income is too high. In making its determination, the district ruled that Vivian’s mother should have calculated what she would pay on the open market for her room and board with the Storch family, and declared that calculation as part of her income.

The district’s counsel said he could not comment on specifics due to student confidentiality laws.

“In general, free and reduced lunch applications are considered on their own merits, not directly related to any residency issues,” attorney Harold Freiman said.

Storch also questioned whether the mother’s application for the lunch program tipped off district administrators because Maria included the child support payment stubs from her ex-husband, which were sent to the Bay Point address. The mother has a domestic violence restraining order against her ex and still gets certain mail at the old address to keep her current address secret. This newspaper is not using the mother and daughter’s full name to protect their identities.

Freiman said that was not what prompted the residency probe.

The district first refused Vivian’s free lunch in an Oct. 6 letter written by Loreen Farrell, the district’s business services director, who also wrote the girl’s residency dismissal letter.

“We have received your income information with your application for the free lunch program for Vivian,” Farrell wrote. “However, according to federal guidelines, in order to qualify for the free lunch program, you must also include what would be your housing cost were it not provided to you free of charge. Currently, a guest cottage in that area of Orinda would likely be rented for at least $1,700/month.”

Farrell said adding that to Maria’s income made her daughter ineligible because her income surpassed $29,000 annually. A second denial was sent Nov. 4.

State and federal education officials said Monday that such an “in-kind” income calculation is not part of federal guidelines. Orinda opts out of the federal free lunch program and instead funds its own. Less than 1 percent (8 out of 2,482) of Orinda district students received free lunches last school year, according to state data.

Meanwhile, school board member Sarah Butler became the first trustee to speak publicly about the situation, saying she was upset that the board wasn’t informed about it. Farrell said the board’s policy requires the district to investigate if residency questions are raised.

“We do this to preserve the district’s limited resources for students who either actually live in Orinda or who are here legally through other recognized means of establishing residency,” Farrell wrote in an email. “We have had prior instances where issues regarding a particular student’s residency is questioned, and have before used a private investigator to help with the investigation required by our regulations. “

To Lewis Needle, Vivian’s experience rang familiar.

In February 2013, he and his wife received a letter stating that his daughter Eloise, then in kindergarten, no longer lived within the district boundaries. But unlike the terse disenrollment letter sent to Vivian’s mother Maria, the Needles were given 10 days to provide proof of residency and, failing that, offered the opportunity to apply for an interdistrict transfer to keep their child in school.

Needle believes the district query for Eloise began after the parents handed out birthday invitations with their home address. The parcel is located in unincorporated Orinda but has two postal addresses with an Oakland ZIP code.

“We resolved the issue but were left not knowing if an investigator had followed us home, which parents wanted us out, had they come to our house and child’s party and then decided they should report us,” he said. “It left us with a very sour taste and was not an environment we wanted our kids educated in.”

The family eventually left the district and enrolled their children in a Berkeley private school.

Storch said she plans to confront the school board at the next meeting Dec. 8.

She’s not the only Orinda resident who is upset. Lisa Copass started a Change.org petition Monday to remove superintendent Joe Jaconette.

“The superintendent’s actions regarding the residency of Vivian were irresponsible and put the Orinda community at risk,” she wrote on the petition. “We are not a racist community, and we demand school employees, especially leaders, use better judgment. Sign this petition and show the world what Orinda is really all about.”

Contact Matthias Gafni at 925-952-5026. Follow him at Twitter.com/mgafni.