Board votes to open bids for outsourced food service after cafeteria staff appeal

The Union County/College Corner Joint School District board voted at its meeting to open bids for outside food‑service management, a procedural step that allows the district to solicit proposals but does not require it to contract with any bidder.

The decision followed nearly an hour of public comment from cafeteria staff who urged the board to retain the district’s in‑house operation. Jenny, the district’s food service director for nine years, told the board she and her staff run the program from a federal 800 fund and that outsourcing would risk cutting “15 of our lowest paid employees.” She asked to be included in any analysis and questioned an example startup fee she said was described to the district as about $32,000 for a Chartwells proposal.

Rietta Gilge, who identified herself as the middle‑school cafeteria manager of 13 years, said she did not want to lose her job and worried that if staff had to reapply under a third‑party manager “I’m going to go somewhere else that I can make more money.”

Administrators emphasized that opening a solicitation does not commit the district to accept any bid. The superintendent and other administrators said advertising typically runs for a month and that companies submit detailed proposals, including financial statements and operating plans, which the district could then evaluate. Board members also noted that the district is not obliged to accept a bid that would “hurt our district.”

Board discussion referenced how federal commodity dollars are used in the school program; the food service director said commodity reimbursements and local sales produce regular revenue and that the department has not been operating at a deficit in recent years. The director reported a March reimbursement check of about $59,000 and said the program has had positive balances in recent years, though some temporary negative balances have occurred and been covered by community donations.

After discussion and public comment the board moved to open the bid process. The chair called the vote and declared the motion “carries”; the transcript records the vote tally inconsistently (the chair read something like “carries 6 0 1 or 6 1 0”), so the official numeric tally in the minutes is unclear. The board’s action allows staff to advertise and accept proposals for up to the solicitation window discussed, with no automatic contract award.

What happens next: staff said they will post the request for proposals, collect bids and return to the board for evaluation and any eventual contract decision. Cafeteria staff attending the meeting urged the board to review numbers and labor impacts closely before any contract award.

Votes and motions: The motion to open bids was moved and seconded at the meeting; the chair declared the motion carried (tally recorded in the transcript inconsistently; see meeting minutes for the official recorded vote).