PORT BYRON -- With signs in hand, members of the Civil Service Employees Association union circled around the main entrance of the Port Byron Central School District on Wednesday night, protesting what they believe to be unjust treatment from the district.

"Hands off our lunch money," one sign read. "Keep our lunch money local," said another.

Heavily bundled in winter garb, the some 40 union members, including nearly all of the 15 food service workers, objected to the district's position on privatizing its food service by picketing, prior to the board of education meeting.

"I want my job," said Bonnie Kirey, a food service helper for the district. "I don't feel they should hire an out-of-town company. We're all already here."

"They aren't going to care about the kids as much as we do," she later added. "They're our kids."

Port Byron is currently in the midst of a bidding process to out-source its food service with a deadline of this Friday. The service, currently operated by the district, is no longer financially solvent, said Superintendent Neil O'Brien. The district is seeking private food service providers to pick up the tab.

Both the district and CSEA agree the cafeteria has serious financial woes, but they disagree on the problem's origin and how to solve it.

The district maintains that it is the cost of fringe benefits and commodities that have dried up the food-service fund -- a fund independent of the general one that taxpayers vote on.

But CSEA asserts that mismanagement is the root cause of the problem and having new leadership and implementing cost-saving food practices would solve it and keep the food service in district hands.

Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Citizen.