District outlines Chartwells transition plan, local hiring and press outreach; communications team wins national awards

The Springfield School Committee received an update on the district’s food-service transition and heard a presentation on national awards won by the communications team.

CFO Patrick Roche said Chartwells will begin service July 1 and that the transition planning (menus, staffing, software and ID badges) has been happening in weekly meetings with Sodexo and Chartwells. He said 98% of current hourly employees had applied with Chartwells and that Chartwells intends to expand purchases from local vendors. He told the committee that the first cycle of summer-school menus will use existing recipes and that Chartwells will trial new items during the summer before finalizing fall menus.

“We have weekly meetings between the district, Sodexo and Chartwells,” Roche said. He added Chartwells has started outreach with local vendors and is planning onboarding and orientation sessions for hourly staff.

Committee members suggested a September presentation and a community introduction; Chartwells and district staff said they planned a joint press release and would explore community events and social-media outreach prior to the fall opening.

Communications director staff then presented six awards from the National School Public Relations Association for video, social campaigns, photography and branding tied to the district’s ‘Believe’ theme. Multimedia manager Chris Polanco and multimedia analyst Julia Cole described the projects (a music video, student-read story series, school-selection social-media materials, a podcast episode and photography) and said those assets will remain available on the district’s YouTube and social channels.

The committee applauded the communications team and directed staff to keep the community informed about the vendor change and planned events.