The skyrocketing cost of health insurance has impacted employers across the nation in recent years, and it's no different in the Port Byron Central School District.
For the last three years, the cost of fringe benefits and commodities have been drying up the funds available for the district operated food service program, said Port Byron Superintendent Neil O'Brien, and it has come to the point where the service is greater than the revenue it produces.
The district can no longer handle the operation, he said, and is now seeking private food service providers to pick up the tab.
“It's not something that is very satisfying or that we're excited to do,” O'Brien said. “It's a crossroads that, when you get to it, you have some tough decisions to make.”
Port Byron is currently in the midst of a bidding process with a deadline of Nov. 30. O'Brien expects to have a system in place for the opening of the second half of school in January.
Port Byron is not the first district to privatize food service. The Auburn Enlarged City School District and Cato-Meridian Central School District have had private companies operate food service for more than a decade while the Jordan-Elbridge Central School District is in the second year of its first private contract. Moravia Central School District still operates its food service program.
While O'Brien, using the feedback from other districts who have private food service providers, is optimistic that an outside company would bring a successful food service program to the district, the CSEA labor union, which represents the 15 food service employees in the district, isn't so sure.
“At this time it feels like the district is on a fast track to push this in,” said CSEA spokesperson Mark Kotzin. “Let's back up and slow down and give it a true airing out in the public so it's not just done over the cover of darkness and behind closed doors. Let the public have their choice and let's examine it without having it backfire on the district.”
Kotzin is concerned that several years down the road, once “the district no longer has the ability to (provide food service) themselves, the contractors can up their rates significantly and hold the taxpayers hostage.”
“There are 750 students that still need to get food every day and the taxpayers will be left holding the bag,” he said.
According to O'Brien, the money used to fund the food service program does not come out of the general fund voted on by taxpayers every year. The money to operate the program comes from government reimbursement for free and reduce meals as well as sales. And that would not change with the hiring of an outside company.
Business administrators from districts that have private companies operating food service also dispel the notion of being held hostage by companies looking to make a few extra bucks.
“The state Education Department governs how districts bid for food service,” said William Hamilton, assistant superintendent for business and finance at Jordan-Elbridge. “We're required to bid every five years for the service, and that's a competitive bid. And in that five years the amount they can increase charges per meal is dictated by the state Education Department. This year our amount raised was equal to the Consumer Price Index at the end of May, which was below 3 percent.”
The 15 food service workers have ideas of how to cut costs, Kotzin said, and they want their chance to share them with the administration. Improper ordering of food items, letting food spoil and using different brand names are just some of the ideas and concerns thrown around.
“Our members feel very strongly that there may be problems with service right now, but that does not mean you have to throw the whole thing out with the bathwater,” he said.
O'Brien said the district has offered to discuss these issues with CSEA.
Kotzin maintains that the public should be involved in any discussion involving the out-sourcing of food service.
“We feel that the community should be up in arms about this,” he said. “This is really an issue that anybody that cares about the food service delivery system in the district should be concerned about. We feel that there should be a public discourse on this, which to date, there hasn't been.”
Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at alyssa.sunkin@lee.net or 253-5311 ext. 239
The district can no longer handle the operation, he said, and is now seeking private food service providers to pick up the tab.
“It's not something that is very satisfying or that we're excited to do,” O'Brien said. “It's a crossroads that, when you get to it, you have some tough decisions to make.”
Port Byron is currently in the midst of a bidding process with a deadline of Nov. 30. O'Brien expects to have a system in place for the opening of the second half of school in January.
Port Byron is not the first district to privatize food service. The Auburn Enlarged City School District and Cato-Meridian Central School District have had private companies operate food service for more than a decade while the Jordan-Elbridge Central School District is in the second year of its first private contract. Moravia Central School District still operates its food service program.
While O'Brien, using the feedback from other districts who have private food service providers, is optimistic that an outside company would bring a successful food service program to the district, the CSEA labor union, which represents the 15 food service employees in the district, isn't so sure.
“At this time it feels like the district is on a fast track to push this in,” said CSEA spokesperson Mark Kotzin. “Let's back up and slow down and give it a true airing out in the public so it's not just done over the cover of darkness and behind closed doors. Let the public have their choice and let's examine it without having it backfire on the district.”
Kotzin is concerned that several years down the road, once “the district no longer has the ability to (provide food service) themselves, the contractors can up their rates significantly and hold the taxpayers hostage.”
“There are 750 students that still need to get food every day and the taxpayers will be left holding the bag,” he said.
According to O'Brien, the money used to fund the food service program does not come out of the general fund voted on by taxpayers every year. The money to operate the program comes from government reimbursement for free and reduce meals as well as sales. And that would not change with the hiring of an outside company.
Business administrators from districts that have private companies operating food service also dispel the notion of being held hostage by companies looking to make a few extra bucks.
“The state Education Department governs how districts bid for food service,” said William Hamilton, assistant superintendent for business and finance at Jordan-Elbridge. “We're required to bid every five years for the service, and that's a competitive bid. And in that five years the amount they can increase charges per meal is dictated by the state Education Department. This year our amount raised was equal to the Consumer Price Index at the end of May, which was below 3 percent.”
The 15 food service workers have ideas of how to cut costs, Kotzin said, and they want their chance to share them with the administration. Improper ordering of food items, letting food spoil and using different brand names are just some of the ideas and concerns thrown around.
“Our members feel very strongly that there may be problems with service right now, but that does not mean you have to throw the whole thing out with the bathwater,” he said.
O'Brien said the district has offered to discuss these issues with CSEA.
Kotzin maintains that the public should be involved in any discussion involving the out-sourcing of food service.
“We feel that the community should be up in arms about this,” he said. “This is really an issue that anybody that cares about the food service delivery system in the district should be concerned about. We feel that there should be a public discourse on this, which to date, there hasn't been.”
Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at alyssa.sunkin@lee.net or 253-5311 ext. 239
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