{"id":1666,"date":"2011-02-10T15:43:55","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T20:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unionvilletimes.com\/?p=1666"},"modified":"2011-02-10T15:43:55","modified_gmt":"2011-02-10T20:43:55","slug":"ucf-food-service-outsourcing-brought-into-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=1666","title":{"rendered":"UCF Food service outsourcing brought into question"},"content":{"rendered":"

Board of Ed. members ask why it makes to sense to tamper with self-sufficient operation<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\n\"\"<\/a>EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The march to privatizing school district food services \u2014 and potentially other services \u2014 may hit a bump in the road if the Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education decides later this month not to hire a consultant to look at outsourcing.<\/p>\n

During Monday night\u2019s Finance Commitee meeting, board members discussed a proposed consulting deal with Carol H. Gilbert Consulting, some members questioned whether it made sense spend money on a service that is currently breaking even \u2014 that is operating without any cost to taxpayers.<\/p>\n

Marie Wickersham, Supervisor of Food Service for the Unionville district,\u00a0 broke down the operation for food service at the district\u2019s six schools, noting that the $2.1 million operation basically runs like a small, stand alone business within the district administration. In addition to generating the revenue to pay for food and staff salaries and benefits, the operation has paid for its share of equipment and building expenses, she noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe operate on the idea that we should be self-sustaining,\u201d Wickersham told the board. She noted that there is some state and federal funding and the food service used to do some in-district catering \u2014 now vastly curtailed because spending reductions within the district. She noted that the food service operation was running a deficit\u00a0 of about $150,000 before she took over management some years back.<\/p>\n

She also noted that any savings found in the operation would only be seen in lunch prices \u2014 extra money earned by the food service operation cannot be transferred back to the general operating budget. Wickersham said she helps to coordinate a regional buying co-op that results in lower food costs for the school districts that participate.<\/p>\n

After going the financials for the food service operation, some board members asked why it was necessary to make changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do we hope to gain?\u201d board member Jeff Lesier asked. \u201cIt won\u2019t be a revenue source to the district.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI say, if it\u2019s not broken, don\u2019t fix it,\u201d board member Holly Manzone said.<\/p>\n

Other members cited labor costs as a potential problem, especially with looming pension spikes for school employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s likely that labor costs are going to up in the future,\u201d Jeff Hellrung said. \u201cOur students pay for the costs of food service. Our students would pay less if we can deliver the same services at a lower price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wickersham did note that few food service employees are full time and qualify for pensions, which means the impact of expected increases in contributions to employee pension plans will somewhat limited.<\/p>\n

As the meeting went on, it appeared that it might be hard for the consulting contract to get the five votes needed for approval at the Feb. 22 school board meeting. Finance Commitee chair Keith Knauss suggested opting not to look for savings, whether the food service stays in house or is privatized, could forestall future efforts in this area.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t ask the questions now, we\u2019re not going to ask the questions later,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Board president Timotha Trigg, said she disagreed, saying that if food service prices \u2014 which are set by the board of education \u2014 are forced to increase, the board could then revisit the idea of looking for savings in the program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Board of Ed. members ask why it makes to sense to tamper with self-sufficient operation By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The march to privatizing school district food services \u2014 and potentially other services \u2014 may hit a bump in the road if the Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education decides later this month […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,16],"tags":[161,44,43,24],"class_list":["post-1666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-schools","tag-outsourcing","tag-school-board","tag-schools-2","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}