The Pleasant Valley School Board approved in a 5-4 vote Thursday night to hire Whitsons Nutrition LLC as the district’s food service management company.

The measure comes after much debate and a prior vote on June 12, when the measure failed in a 4-4. Director Melanie Zipp was not present at that meeting, and had told the school board at their meeting on June 8, when the decision to vote on the matter was scheduled, that she would not be at the June 12 meeting.

With Whitsons selected, the school board unanimously voted to eliminate the food service department director position and lay off Beverly Hendricks, who was its director. The contract with Whitsons includes the company hiring its own director to manage Pleasant Valley’s program. The cafeteria workers will remain employed by the school district.

The school board agreed to provide Hendricks a severance package of 35% her salary for the 2023-24 school year and 90 days health care coverage.

School Board President Sue Kresge said the matter was not revisited because Zipp was absent from the vote, but because the business department discovered there would be a loss of $279,602 next school year, partially due to a federal subsidy enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic ending June 30. The district’s food service program had run up a deficit of $1.4 million, which was paid down to $1.2 million due to profits over the last two years.

Whitsons, which is part of Whitsons Culinary Group in Islandia, New York, and owned by a private equity firm GenNx360 in New York City, guaranteed the school district a $25,634 profit at the end of the 2023-24 school year, under two conditions. Those conditions being that there would be 180 school days and the enrollment would not decrease.

Prior to the vote, Director Teresa Greggo asked Tammy Smale, the assistant business manager, about those conditions. Business manager Michael Simonetta was not present for the meeting.

Greggo pointed out that the school district uses remote learning sometimes instead of taking a snow day. This would decrease the number of days the students are using the cafeteria.

“If the contract says 180 days - and it’s highlighted - and we’re only in school for 175 and five flex days, that could be one of the conditions that could break this guarantee of $25,000,” Greggo said.

“It can be,” Smale said. “But what they have to do is they have to negotiate that with the district. What is the bottom dollar figure effect - is it $10, is it $100. So they have to negotiate it with the district. Once it’s negotiated with the district, we actually have to send that to the state and the state has to approve that change.”

Greggo asked when it would be negotiated.

Smale said that it is negotiated at the end of the school year, when the number of days in school is known.

Greggo then asked about enrollment and how it would affect the profit if enrollment drops.

“If our enrollment drops that means our meals are going to drop, which means their administrative and management fees drop,” Smale said.

The school board also was given a second option - keep its food service program. Director Michael Galler made a motion to accept Option 2 and Director Todd Kresge seconded it, but it failed in a 5-4 vote. In addition to Galler and Kresge, Greggo and Director Delbert Zecharias also voted to keep the district’s food service program. Those voting to go with Whitsons included School Board President Sue Kresge and directors Melanie Zipp, Diane Serfass, Norm Burger and Robert Clark.

The contract with Whitsons is for one school year with the option to extend it another four years.