SOMERSET — The School Committee will finally meet tomorrow night and pass the hat to cover the cost of pizza and soda for a new teacher orientation that didn’t meet the reimbursement guidelines of the town’s accounting department.

Since August, Gus’ Pizza has been out $148.05 for 10 pizzas and 9 bottles of soda served during lunch for an orientation session for the new teachers and their mentors. The restaurant is also owed $87.15 for an Aug. 22 legal workshop for administrators.

The town refused to pay both bills, saying that rules don’t cover the cost of outside food when in-house personnel are involved in a seminar.

Schools Supt. Richard W. Medeiros has countered that if the department had hired an outside consultant to run the orientation and billed the town for lunch as part of that program, the bill would have come to over $770, and Town Accountant Joseph R. Bolton would have paid it without any questions.

Just calling in cafeteria workers to fix lunch would have cost about $470, far more than the $148 lunch bill from Gus’ Pizza, Medeiros said.

School Committee Chairwoman Ann M. Correira said committee members decided to pay the bill out of their own pockets.

“We have more important issues,” she said. “We don’t think it’s worth fighting over. We have a good relationship with the town” and the committee didn’t want to jeopardize that.

Although committee members decided 12 days ago to pay Gus’ Pizza personally, owner Konstantinos “Gus” Skarpos said on Thursday that he hadn’t seen any money.

But he said he was prepared to be patient.

“I don’t worry about it. They’ll pay for it,” he said.

Correira said Skarpos would have gotten his money earlier, but she was given the bills from the town accountant’s office last Thursday. “We’ll take donations from committee members next Wednesday.”

The food fight became public Oct. 25 after Bolton went before the Board of Selectmen asking for clarification of the town’s policy about what meals will be paid, and what will not.

His visit was sparked by a letter from Selectwoman Eleanor Gagnon urging that the two bills be approved.

The other two selectmen affirmed the 2003 policy under which meals are only reimbursed when an outside contractor does all-day training for town or school employees. Meals for social events, or for training where town employees are the trainers, are not.

Correira said the School Committee will be asking the town “to clarify the policy as to what they will pay.”

Bolton has said the policy is clear.

The committee has a $5,000 “hospitality” line item in its budget and $3,120 has been spent. But none of that has been for food, Correira said.

Some $3,000 was for membership to the Greater Fall River School to Work Program, $100 was to videotape School Committee meetings and $20 went to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, the chairwoman said.

Skarpos, who has been in town 27 years, said he’s been caught up in gamesmanship.

“I love the town just like everybody, but the way I see is it, it’s political,” he said. “They make themselves look ridiculous. They make the town look ridiculous.”