Although a 4-4 vote earlier in June struck down the option to hire a food service management company, the topic hasn’t gone away.

“I’m a little upset about putting the cafeteria back on the agenda,” said school board Director Todd Kresge at the Pleasant Valley School Board meeting last week. “It had already gone through, and it did not pass, so why do we still keep on putting it on? Just to get the vote that somebody wants or are we doing the right thing?”

Director Melanie Zipp said she asked the district’s business manager to reintroduce the idea, because she missed the special meeting on June 12 when the vote was taken.

Zipp was present for the school board meeting on June 8 when the date for the special meeting was scheduled for June 12. She said at that time that she would not be able to attend the special meeting.

The special meeting was held so the school board could take a vote on whether or not they wanted to hire Whitsons Nutrition LLC, a food service management company, to implement its own program.

The directors were split on the matter, which killed the motion to hire Whitsons. Those voting in favor of hiring Whitsons included board President Susan Kresge, Diane Serfass, Norman Burger and Robert Clark. Those voting against it were Todd Kresge, Delbert Zacharias, Teresa Greggo and board Vice President Michael Galler.

Since then, Beverly Hendricks, the director of the district’s Food Service Program, wrote an improvement plan that included some of the ideas Whitsons promised to deliver.

At the school board meeting on June 29, Michael Simonetta, the district’s business manager, gave a presentation about the food service program and included five points made in Hendricks’ plan.

Simonetta began the presentation by showing the audited financial losses in the historical data for the in-house program.

He also said he asked the auditors if nonfood service work, such as for custodial, was charged to the Food Service Department, which would add to the financial losses. Some former district employees said this had happened, but Simonetta said the auditors told him it was not the case.

The data also showed a profit of $509,441 in the 2021-22 school year and confirmed by an audit, as well as a projected profit in the 2022-23 school year of $165,000.

Simonetta said the profits are due in part to the school district’s participation in the federal government’s Community Eligibility Provision program. The program provides free breakfast and lunches to students in low-income areas. The 2022-23 school year was the first year the district participated in the CEP program. It will continue to receive funding through the program for the next four years.

Simonetta said the federal subsidies are going to be less next school year, partially due to a subsidy provided during the COVID-19 pandemic ending. He projects the decrease in federal subsidies to be $296,126.

“In my role here, this is hard for me to recommend given what we could have with the FSM,” Simonetta said about keeping the district’s Food Service Department.

If nothing changes in the district’s Food Service Department, Simonetta said there would be a loss of $294,098, next year.

He projects the revenues will total $2,072,000, while the expenditures would be $2,366,098.

If improvements are made, then the revenue would be the same at $2,072,000, but the expenditures would increase to $2,421,602. This would create a loss of $349,602.

The expenses for the improved program show an increase of $40,504 in salaries and benefits, $10,000 more for nonfood supplies, and $5,000 for training for a total of $55,504.

According to the presentation, Beverly Hendricks plan for improvements included five points.

• Improving food quality - train the cooks and staff in ways to upgrade the menu and get student feedback.

• Fiscal goals - seek grants and rebates, and improve the A la carte and special function menus.

• Staffing - improve hiring efforts.

• Employee training - head cooks could attend conferences and adjust the menus.

• Purchase fresh food and additional equipment - get fresh food locally and small wares such as a sandwich maker.

Whitsons’ proposal included panini makers and emphasized fresh, local food.

Whitsons said in its proposal that its revenue would be $1,560,252 and its expenditures would be $819,733, based on parameters supplied by the school district.

It is not known what the parameters included, but in the food service presentation on June 29, Simonetta listed the items under revenue as sales, employee contributions, rebates, state subsidy, state FICA, state retirement, federal subsidy, investment earnings and donated commodities. Salaries and benefits make up the highest amount of expenses at $1,201,598. Expenses also include uniforms, repairs and maintenance, copier rental, software, travel, nonfood supplies, food, donated commodities, dues and fees.

Whitsons promised it could guarantee a $25,635 profit each year, which would be generated by subtracting the expenditures from the revenue, and then subtracting out the school district’s employee-related costs of $714,884.