001all right there okay all right good evening um I would like to call this meeting of the berland Boon Regional school committee to order just a reminder that this meeting is being recorded your image and or voice may be broadcast we please stand for the leg flag United States [Music] America all right is anyone here to make a public comment okay um it does not look like it as of now and did anyone have any Communications they would like to share got one okay um some people reached out to me uh they didn't want to give their names right now just because a a controversial subject I guess and they don't want to get involved in all the social media they don't want to up on late night TV they've been listening to all the
002conversations we've been having about uh curriculum inclusion Dei uh they listened about inclusing when Jess listed all the identity groups and they're wondering about our Tanto mascot right so it's the Stag is the Toronto mascot a stag is specifically a male beer and they're wondering why they don't want to be inclusive with the mascot of all students just male students I'm not really a fan of changing mascots but it's hard to argue with the logic given the environment so they asked me to bring it up um I don't know what we want to do with it if Carol wants to maybe get feedback from the community through a newsletter see if is a male icon of a male de or sag is it inclusive of all of our students I I don't know um it's
003a mascot I know the state is recently taken up legislation to sort of wipe out all the remaining Native American images and languages of school mascot so maybe this is the time to talk about it I don't know but uh told I bring it up and so I did okay thank you are the female team soal female stats or stats okay maybe something to add to a future agenda item we can bring that up later thank you Mike sure all right was there anything else all right let's move on to the consent agenda uh is there a motion to approve items 1 through seven of the consent agenda so right L second Mike all in favor I just I a couple questions on I email is it good I can answer I didn't answer them
004yet I can quickly go over it okay right Julie uh do you want to read your questions yep just go one um yeah just three really quick because I know we have a lot to do um one of them was for voucher $159 and the Lem was for the nrt bus invoice for 53 8446 yeah um and I'm just wondering I'm just trying to get an idea of cost for buses for athletic Transportation per season so have an idea so if athletic fees do get raised there's um this is coming yeah so the this invoice was for the month of October this was nrt transportation for athletic Transportation they transported field hockey soccer and golf um this was all our away games for transportation so the rate that we are charged for athletic transportation for
005this current year is $321 per mile and then it's $47.52 an hour for the driver so there could be a waiting period in there so the total of that invoice was $538 446 that driver is nrt that's correct yeah um all right the other one's 1058 the voucher and that is for Diamond Athletics um from the look like the revolving athletic revolving account 3525 and 3125 and I know we had um the athletic fields and not draining properly and there was discussion about on are in those fields I was just wondering if any of these figures is that or what these figures so that was um Diamond Athletics it's fertilization Theo campus in the athletic fields and heavy Limestone application to also the Tonto campus Fields so that was two invoices both in October awesome
006how many acres is that do you know how many acres noting facility okay any idea of fertilization sorry the last question is it the D like I'm just I guess wondering how it's going to help the fields for next year because they do the final fertilization and seating yeah they'll come back spring and start up again so they seated yeah and they did the line and the a rating ating so there were four separate treatments or scope of work done yep great that's awesome all right and the last one was for um 1049 and that's for AJ irrigation for3 AJ irrigation we um we have a three-year contract with them we use them for starting up the season midseason maintenance in the winter shut off for our irrigation system that particular invoice they ran through
007the system for inspections five zones needed to be replaced the main Athletic Field which is used for baseball and soccer and there were also three rotary heads that were replaced in one zone replacement all right so so is that contract when does that run are we at the end of the contract or are we in the middle of that so the zones were already replaced everything is working fine the way it's supposed to so now they'll come back spring started up yeah then from July August they'll come do a meance check and then at the end of the season he'll shut it off okay that's great L great so it's fully operational oper okay thank you so much I appreciate it all right thank you I appreciate it you're welcome any other questions on the
008consent agenda okay good so we have a motion on the table so um all in favor to approve the consent agenda I I as well any opposed okay motion passes all right so before I move into my um my chair report which will be brief I had opened up to public comment I really appreciate all of you coming tonight I don't know if anyone wanted to make a public comment I didn't want to Raw you of that opportunity because I know you all the hall anyone you don't have to I just didn't want to all right good thank you okay all right so tonight I want to do two things number one one is um I'm just going to go through the subcommittee appointments again because we have a few changes and then number two
009is I'm just going to briefly discuss the drive procedure so uh for the policy subcommittee I'm going to appoint um Mr Michael Topman is chair he'll accept yes and uh lri will be a member so we're just swapping uh for the superintendent evaluation subcommittee um lri is chair currently Jessica is a member I was was a member I'm removing myself from that subcommittee uh for the Student Success subcommittee we're going to keep that one as is uh Jessica is chair correct and Lisa is a member and then for the budget facilities um that would be myself as chair and Julie Lee as member and down the road we will have a negotiations subcommittee but we'll do those appointments next year all right any questions on that okay next so the the drive procedure just a
010reminder um so it's really imperative that we have all the information in the drive by the Thursday evening before the school committee meeting um and I know it's tough because you're probably like well what do you want this is hard um to figure out what questions we're going to ask or how to prepare the best thing I can say is to just like like you were think if you were writing an email to us or a memo hey school committee I'm standing in front of you I want you to vote on this this is my position here's the information here's why I feel this way for the most part we're doing that and and I know every we're all new working together this is new for all of us and I think everyone's doing a
011great job but it's just this is just a reminder [Music] um so for example donations that's that's kind of another thing we kind of gone along and usually we're just like oh so and so made a donation for this amount okay approved it would be great if we could get amounts the source and as much background information is possible because we had an issue this previous year with a donation um same thing for clubs I know it should just be a quick okay school committee here's this club we want to approve it but if you could give cost to the district specifically what the kids will be doing in the club if you know who the adviser of the club will be and you know when it will take place any type of details like
012that just so we can make informed votes it would be really helpful and again a memo Style just like you're writing an email I don't want anyone spending hours preparing for these meetings it should just be like a memo PowerPoint is great if there's like we're having an outside Party come in they have a PowerPoint for us that's great that's perfect but for the principals and and the the um the District staff if you're coming in a memo is is fine and then when you're presenting assume we have read everything and hopefully we'll have questions compiled or asked ahead of time so the majority of the meeting should just be discussion because honestly the problem is we as a committee do not have time to deliberate outside right we can't deliberate outside of the meeting
013so this time this sacred time should just be really focused on discussion and deliberation for us I'm going to try to keep meetings as brief as possible because I know we all value our evenings um I think that was it tonight we're going to try to keep it to two hours um so I'm not going to be rude but if anyone is taking too long we're just gonna we'll we'll just ask to move along and we want to keep moving forward and anything that we can do outside of the meetings at subcommittee meetings we're going to try to do that all right any questions okay all right so now I would like to introduce our Tanto student council representative um Miss Emerson Walsh do you go by Emmy or Emerson Emerson okay so Emerson next
014time you'll have a seat at the table for you with a name tag I'm sorry about that that is our fault um and Emerson is just going to give us a brief update on what is happening at so hello everyone thank you for having me first off I just want to I know last time I heard talking about the sports and how we were doing very well which we ended the fall season very good the Tonto varsity girls soccer broke our school record and they made it further than any of our girls soccer teams have in the past our boy soccer made it to the elite eight which we were very excited about and our football team won the state championship Super Bowl so we've been very excited and proud of all our teams and
015we're having a parade for our football team on Saturday morning in West boil I believe and then for event middle school spirit week has been this week and they've all been very excited um the seniors just had a Crispy Cream fundraiser that we were hoping to raise a little extra money for our class but we were far more more successful than we thought we would be we ended up raising about $1,200 which was very good and then right before Thanksgiving break we had a food drive and we had a fun little competition between all the grades and the staff and the seniors ended up winning both collectively we donated lots and lots of food to those less fortunate we were very excited about that and I know the student council did a Giving Tree and
016it was just tags on a tree and if you wanted to give a present or something for less fortunate families we had tags and we only have two tags left as of today which was awesome now we have none none left which we very happy and I think that's it for events and honestly this year has been very smooth no not as many problems but I know our student advisory committee just began talking about bus issues and preventing any students feeling unsafe or not welcome on the bus so we just kind of started talking about possible solutions we don't know if there's something we could do within those buses budget wise or we were talking about a bus monitor but as everything that does add a little extra to the cost so yeah thank you
017so much that's great does anyone have any any questions for [Music] Emerson is there a specific issue with buses that we don't know about that people feeling unsafe I don't know specifically but I knew there were two instances on separate buses just teasing and things where the bus driver obviously is focused on the road and it went on for longer than it should have but no specifics I rode the bus after Okay so this was a tato bus Elementary Carol could maybe a little bit more details because I want to acknowledge the assistant principes who took these incidents and made a positive out of it they worked with the principal the two Elementary principles to have and the bus company we were on res Zoom with the bus company to have common protocols from K
01812 that they're posted on the bus that they're reviewed by the schools with the children Through The Years so as I carry Through The Years everybody is on the same page with bus expectations those are handled at Tanto the assistant principles are also working with the elementary principles on the way if students are switching buses in elementary it happens less it's more about if a parent is taking the child off the bus to pick them up at school this is more about a child going home in the Middle High School grades to work on a project with somebody else or whatever reason that they have a way of tracking that checking the children and ensuring who's on the bu and that that's appropriate so that's really and I don't know if I miss anything that's
019the El that's the system principles who are working on that based on couple things that happened and they going that's great I know we're not talking about budget tonight but in the budget is it the idea of this fourth bus is this got any relation to that is would that help avoid some of these situations are they too crowded are they on there for too long no no it doesn't it doesn't it's not the not the same yeah at all that's more about distance and anyone have any more questions for Emerson thank you so much you can feel free to stay or take off thank you okay next up we have Nancy is just gonna give us um I think she's just introducing um wson right or quick updates okay perfect just a couple things
020I wanted to touch on one I just wanted to let everyone know we have our meeting tomorrow night with the Berlin finance committee that's at 7:30 so Carol and I will be attending [Music] um and then the other thing I just wanted to mention is a update on the phal year 25 budget the budget is in the system that's good news now Carol and I are working on setting up meetings with with the stakeholders the lead stakeholders of each department and reviewing everything and making sure we have everything in there correctly so that's where we are right now within the budget and then we're still on target to present it to you in February so we're plugging along good those are my really quick updates the last thing I would like to do is I
021want to introduce wion's culinary group for those of you who don't know why they're here this evening so our recently our food service director has resigned um due to his resignations we put a lot of effort to fill his position we advertised on school spring we did get some applicants none of the applicants were suitable candidates for the position consequently I explored different options which is engaging with different food management companies in wison as one of them two of the other ones I reached out to was chart Wells and oh gosh P Fresh Pick Cafe um they didn't have the capability to take us on but wion's did um so we pursued in that direction so Wiens is a food service company they come equipped with its own food service director they will handle the
022venu planning the staff oversight they will order the food and supplies and they will fill out the require claim forms for me to submit to the Department of Education in light of the urgency of the situation I have contacted the Department of Education and they have agreed to facilitate an emergency procurement for us to move forward with wison for the rest of the year one of the things that I really want to express is that our existing our lovely cafeteria people who are here today nothing happens to them they are still employed for the School District um if we choose to go out to bid again at the end of the school year if we move forward with witson we'll we'll obviously come back have a meeting and see where we stand at that time
023we can go many different Avenues when we decide to go at that time the main thing that this does at time this moment is solidify us with being able to serve food to our students quickly since we don't have a lot of time on our um Carol and I went out and went to graft in public schools and we were able to see a display of what witson has to offer and I have to say I think Carol feels the same way I was very impressed the quality of the food the the way they displayed the food the the kids even engagement with the food it was remarkable they I I was sold immediately it was great and as you can see they they displayed a nice presentation when they came in and I will
024tell you that presentation is what we saw it that is not like doctored up to look good that is what we saw in the school I also reached out to many other Food Service directors who are going in this excuse me not Food Service directors Director of Finance people who are going in this Direction one of them is uh Dan Gale who's over at the Grafton Public Schools he he loves he he says it's the best thing he's ever done you know they they're great to their staff they give great food they're reimbursable meals are high one of the other things that I feel personally is that we won't bear any losses and they are not profitable WS since takes the loss the school district does not take the loss that's a hard one if
025that's guaranteed in with having a food service director that's not always guaranteed that wasn't guaranteed to us last year that didn't happen to us last year so for me obviously I'll be reviewing financials monthly but that that's a that's a that's a big sell in my eyes um we have had a longstanding challenge with Staffing since I've been here this I'm in my second year since I've been here staffing has been incredibly difficult being short staff has caused persistent disruptions it's not just disruptions to the food service director not being able to get to the back end of ordering and forms and all the regulations that the department of Ed requires it's also taking time away from our Administration I mean Miss squa can speak to she's R registers served food I'm sure right and
026so has the the assistant principles um that that that problem will fall off of our shoulders and go on to theirs um if we forward with this if you vote for this tonight they will start on January 2nd to serve our school students when they return from vacation so with all that I would like to introduce them to you they're going to do a short presentation for you um Christine I'll take it I don't know I need to say anything else sounds good I'm I'm gonna stall you for one moment I apologize I should asked if they had a question sorry sorry about that um when did he resign he resigned three weeks ago I don't have the exact date with me I STS ago he started this school year who was the director last
027year Lauren Staples okay yeah this kind of goes back to what Megan was mentioning earlier it's going to come up again when we talk about the facilities noce but this is the first minute that the committee is seeing this slide right here this wasn't provided to us before the meeting hardly any information about the situation was provided to us before the meeting I can personally say that I had parents and our food service workers come up to us randomly out in the community and say what's going on with this what going to happen in my job I had no idea what to tell them because I didn't know along with the security situation again parents randomly that's how I found out randomly Carol I feel like the communication on these two items wasn't great last
028year one of the biggest homeworks of you starting as superintendent was your communication and transparency this is a pretty big deal it's a pretty big change for our district and to have to find out about it through parents or other employees caught me off guard I don't know about any of you guys but it wasn't really the way to go about it as far as voting on this tonight I guess we can discuss the vote when it comes up but we basically have no information to go on for a vote we have no idea about costs can I speak what's going to happen to our employees after this year we had nothing to prepare for this and like goes to what Megan was saying Carol we talked about it all last year about getting information
029into the drive so we can be prepared to not have to make a quick decision on the spot for something so big that how many Food Services Workers do we have in the District 20 give or take I don't know the exact number you know I don't know the number I've I count L I have I have four in Boyston there's two in Berlin and then there's so 16 15 16 17 somewhere around there you're asking us to vote on a decision that very well could impact their jobs tonight with little to no information to go can I speak yeah first of all that's why this is an emergency procurement because we had we knew this emergency at least Thursday can I so when someone resigns you post for the job you wait two weeks
030to see have for applicants that's what I did I had no qualified applicants so then we reached out to companies yeah no I get it n what I'm saying is that we were given no information but clearly they spent time preparing this prepare that no no they they did they could have sent it over we have no asked you're on top of the because they did ask in the drive and I said no because that was their presentation not mine you're on top of the budget we have no idea about what this could save us what it could cost us what it could anything about it it's in dri I have the whole financial thing in the drive no you have the you have the you have the electronic form they filled out for the
031RFP which got into the drive at 6:00 yesterday after I asked for it because it wasn't in the drive that gives no time to review it it mentions an RFP we haven't seen the RFP that wasn't in the drive I assume if we do go with them I assume if we do go with them there no R because it's just an emergency procurement so there is no RP okay well the form mentions as part of the RFP this is what we have and this is what we need okay so there isn't one so that was misleading at best to get it last night at six o'clock so it's a big ask to vote on 17 jobs with little to no preparation oh but the information she gave us is our jobs are ured for the
032rest of the the year for the rest of the year emergency situation so then it will be Revisited at the end of the year so that was I was getting to I assume if we were to go this way there would be a contract we haven't seen a template for that contract don't I got the contract yesterday from the Department of Education like this this stuff is not quick this stuff takes I it's not quick but he resigned three weeks ago we found out about it yesterday or the other day when I was out at doing some shopping and I just happened to run across somebody and they asked what's going we haven't had a meeting and the chair is aware that we went to Grafton Public School I understand the chair is aware but
033the chair is one person this is a committee yeah but we have open meeting law so really we have to rece there are are certain things but you can send out factual information hey our director resigned we've got an issue we're working on it here's what you can tell people if they randomly come up to you in the community you did it last year a lot yeah and I and i' I've been working with Megan I think that she and I have been very transparent about what's going on Megan if you would like you do probably have but there's people this is a good point so this is something we as a committee and as a group probably need to do better at right making sure that people have information ahead of time especially for
034things that are significant we're not going to discuss that tonight but that's definitely something that Carol and I will discuss and then we'll have a communication that goes out to the committee there should be a process if there's something large such as food service director resigning there probably should be a process of of whether it have to be an email or from the superintendent um or from the chair uh we'll have to figure that out but I agree that I can see where there's frustrations that you are just getting information last night and we have to vote tonight I think that no matter what this presentation is or what happens we don't know anything for next year that's completely off the table table the vote tonight would just be for these six months to get
035us through because we don't have somebody that can do ordering and to do um to do the job of making the menus and and all of that so dep not make any further changes so it is going to be a big discussion because it will have to be why do someone resign is there a problem with the system is there a problem with the environment the culture and the off that's we can't discuss that but we should discuss some but we can have these conversations these things need to be brought up and we have to figure out executive session or what the correct Avenue to discuss these things is but I don't know that it is right now can I ask one question yeah will our cafeteria staff be paid through bbrsd so theirs are
036attacked they'll be paid through bbrsd and they'll be receiving all benefits so for to clarify none of these workers their lives are not changing right now I would also like to say that I visited each cafeteria and I spoke to all Personnel that were present in the cafeteria so this is not a surprise to and I've done that twice I understand it's not a surprise to them they probably know more about this than we do at this point I mean it's a surprise to me I'm sure it's a surprise to some others on the committee presumably presumably presumably if we vote on this tonight and accept it the chances of us not continuing with it after this school year are probably SL probably whether it's with them or some other group so I would agree
037with that I wouldn't agree with that the kids come home and they're like this is so yucky and every we all we're all parents by the way all of us have kids in the school district yeah so and all in all the schools we hit all the schools and we all know the principles very well so we're going to find out if the kids like it or not and plus we a lot of us know these these women right I see Jenny all the time so we're g to find out if the kids don't like it I think if the kids are like I don't like this or people are complaining we all hear about it so I think if it's good and it's going well then yeah if we're happy with it then we'll
038continue it but we know I know nothing about witson so you're asking us to vote tonight for six months after June will we also be voting to continue or to do something else or would that be a decision that Carol would make as a superintendent for the coming year because this is uh you call it an emergency this is why we're voting or it's voting because we're basically it's going to change the way we're spending the budget in June will we be voting on this again or will it be Carol's decision yeah no actually like it's a it's a really a courtesy vote it's under operations for us so we brought this forward to the school committee and attempt to be transparent about the plan for right now it would just be well it would
039be for this six Monon period of time but I'm more than happy to bring it back to the school committee so you can weigh in I think L more information was talking about feedback from the community from The Children and Families about that that we can have more information to make a decision call I just want to make sure that these 16 employees are taken care of thank you all right does anyone have any other questions about the business aspect this is good we're getting these questions out because we knew that people were going to have these questions none of us are going to come in here and be like yeah let's just bring in a contractor to run the cafeteria like without knowing these people's jobs are okay they're going to continue to get
040their pensions these are questions I knew we were all going to have right um so are there is there anything else to get out of the way about the business aspect of this for witson presents about the actual foods and what's actually going to happen I just want to I it's a very reason he left sure he might just resigned because he was coming from I believe ront in he found a job closer to home Okay that that was the reason and and as far as communicating I I think that Megan and I can work on that we're getting used to each other we're starting to meet every Friday and I think we just figure out how we get the information to the school committee whether it comes to it should come from me I
041I feel like because she's the chair as we had done when I shared with you so I think that's I think that's something yeah and I think well yeah we probably didn't want to say anything I think at first they had gone to look at this before they spoke with the cafeteria workers as rightfully so because if this was a dud and grafted they weren't going to pursue this they weren't going to tell them oh we're hiring somebody so you know back then I wasn't going to share it with anyone um but yeah I think that we should have probably shared some information ahead of time at least about what happened with Michael and Status so when this does go to bid it's the lowest bid next year yeah and there's competing that a lot
042of comp compies there's cly number of competitors in the marketplace you can't say who would be interested but and there's a there's fairly lengthy um list of criteria in terms of validation and it's not always the lowest bit it's the low qualifi right but why is it the lowest what if it like what if I mean I care my kids qualifi that's why I qualif all right okay anyone else without further Ado okay got one more minute one minute and then there there's cost to this I assume I didn't see what that cost was going to be we budgeted for a certain cost this year how is that going to change what we budgeted this this is a revolving account so you don't really I mean you have a budget your goal so we're saving
043on salary your goal in Food Services is to breite even make a slight profit that is always your goal that is what is guaranteed to happen through the rest of the school great all right I have a question I'm sorry Jenny you cannot ask questions at meetings unless a quick question after they do their presentation are we going to be able to ask them question or do we get to sit aside with them afterward fortunately we cannot do that at a school committee meeting it's completely ask questions afterwards what we'll do is um you know all for the for the vote um if it's favorable then what we would ask is that we have time to come back set up a time that works for all of you and me directly with you I want
044to answer questions and talk about the program sorry no strict protocol all right let's go you guys are up thank you stay schedle all right this is questions thank you they are important questions and I I you're right and but yeah we are definitely in great um well we first of all my name is Christine pton I I work with witzens I have brought my wingmen here with me Jeffrey Tao who's the district manager Terrell Jones who is our culinarian and we just want to first thank you um we appreciate the time and the consideration and we will do our best to make sure that we give you enough information that you can make a thoughtful considerate um vote when the time comes for it so I want to honor the request to make sure
045that we are um concise with our words because I don't want you here longer than than need be so I have a couple of slides to go through but I'm hoping that really it's more of a conversation so that we can answer questions and just provide you the information that you feel like you need to make um make a decision that fair that's perfect yesk okay all right um I didn't bring my clicker so I need to do this sorry um anyway we we are witson um we are a regionally based company we're based in um on Long Island we are a family run organization and we are also an MBE um organization we are smaller than some of our competitors um and I think what that does for us is it allows for us
046to be much more flexible much more Nimble and we customize everything that we do um so that in my perspective is kind of our competitive differentiator uh we are not bound to corporate purchasing strategies we do not require our food service directors to use specific recipes or specific menus um to the point that was raised earlier the goal is really that we want students to participate in the school lunch program um and we need to figure out what it is that will help them make the choice to purchase their lunch versus bringing it from home um so we um we really pride ourselves on healthy food local um vendor Partnerships and just better overall program for students um we do have a multitude of uh accounts um we have a very heavy presence in Connecticut
047New York Pennsylvania New Jersey we're now in Florida we are out in um Illinois but I would say our our heaviest president presence is in Massachusetts in Connecticut um in this state alone outside of brafton which we already referenced um we are at Lexington Burlington Harvard um where Welsley Newton um I mean there's there's a multitude we're happy to provide references you you be interested in kind of reaching out to those um it mentions down here we are the only Food Service Company um that at present offers on-site contract management as well as prepared prepared meal services let's hope that we don't need the prepared meal services but it is um something to kind of note in the event that there's some sort of emergency situ situation so that um that line of our business
048prepares food um and then we transport it from the facility to wherever we need to sell it so came in handy in Co for sure was big time for us um so we are a family organized a family run organization um it started as um you know this mom and and dad who wanted to um kind of create a legacy for their family they bought a restaurant they bought another restaurant turned into a catering company a friend of a friend asked them to start doing the food service in their um at their company and then just one thing led to another but our primary business is K12 Food Service there's three things that we pride ourselves on it's people food and communication we are a family organization we treat our employees as if they are
049our family we treat the people that we serve as though they are our family we do good food it's simple food done well and as it relates to communication um we are we are steadfast in authentic and transparent communication whether it's around financials whether it's around food safety um but those are kind of the three pillars uh to which we hold ourselves accountable so the people and I know that you know we have folks in the in the back who hopefully will become um team members as referenced earlier they will remain District um employees um we are just here basically as a resource for them to help get the job done um all right those people so those people we don't need to go I know we're we're in a Time Time situ we'll meet
050them later um actually one guy I do want to call out is Randy he's over here um he's kind of a cool job he is our community engagement manager and one of his primary responsibilities is to help the districts that we partner with write grants so there's a lot of really cool Grant opport unities out there sometimes districts bring it to um our attention sometimes it's something that we've become aware of but um what he does is he will take on the um kind of the heavy lifting when it comes to actually writing the grant for the district so let's just say here maybe there's some sustainability or composting initiatives we identify what it is that we want to pursue but no one really has the time um or the bandwidth to do the actual
051Grant so we would enlist someone like Randy to come and do the grant writing for us and then you know apply the grant here did I hit did I hit on something one one thing on that I would say that Randy helped us get a um a wall Garden ramp which I thought was really cool and I didn't realize how much produce you could actually get from a wall Garden so if you try the salad tonight the Butterbean lettuce that's in that salad is from a wall Garden that was produced in Connecticut so that's pretty cool it's a cool thing the kids got to touch it see it it was tangible it was awesome and you can actually use that to put into the food and they see it in front of them and then
052they became intrigued and now it's a big deal so it's very he's he's an asset B asset they're all assets but his job is is kind of um so what are we what are we here to do we're here to basically increase student participation this is a sampling these are all Massachusetts accounts um just for privacy reasons we didn't list the names of the accounts but as you can see um there is no District um on this particular graph that has a participation level of less than 68% so what does that mean that means that 68% of the students who attend this particular um District partake in the school lunch program so our goal is to have a minimum of 68% school lunch participation so how do we do that this is how we do
053it it all comes down to the products that we buy and Happ who we Source from I'm not going to go through the entire list but a few things that I will call out and you guys as the culinarians feel free to jump in but um so we use all natural salad dressings regardless of elementary middle or high school um we use organic Stony field yogurt and part of um and these guys will tell you a little bit about what we brought but um over there are our yogurt parfaits so um every yogurt parfait that we do is made with Stonyfield organic yogurt we always pair that with Organic um granola we don't do any anything with high fruit toast corn syrup um you know no artificial flavors this unlimited fruit um fresh fruit in
054vegetable daily so this is a cool program that not every school has implemented and I don't know why but if a student purchases a reimbursable lunch they are entitled to come back through the service line as many times as they want and take additional fruits and vegetables awesome um so that's that's always there um maybe in some some instances it's a matter of communication um maybe the program is in place but maybe just not being communicated but I think it's a really impactful um kind of enhancement to the program and it makes your ADP jump your average daily participation we took over in Harvard like I mentioned before when we were speaking um and the children were unaware of the fact that they have unlimited fruits and vegetables now their meal counts were a little
055bit down once they figured out just through marketing and conversations and getting involved in the student advisory boards and stuff like that explaining to them that you can do that the numbers jump 12% for participation that's a huge increase not only that but the kids are getting unlimited fruits and vegetables don't we all we want that that's what we want so that's a very important thing another thing is is um we're the local seafood from Red's best that's an awesome program we partner with Red's best they catch the fish for us in the morning it's tagged brought in the gentleman will even come down from Red's best come into the district and do a Wonder Wonder ful display have the younger ones in the elementary schools he brings fish the kids can touch it see
056it and at that at the end of the day during their their meal service they'll actually eat the fish from Red's best so they see it from Catching to cooking it's it's it's wonderful it's wonderful um you know the focus is always on food sometimes it's how you're presenting it um the servery there first of all the kitchen here is immaculate so whoos whoever is working here um but great equipment great service space um so that's that's half the battle um one of the things that's super important to us is just getting the feedback um from you know parents Administration but most importantly from the students and that looks different at every grade level um for example in the elementary schools we'll do sampling um you'll see some of the the grain bowls that we
057brought um in the back perhaps one day we're going to sample those grain bows and then we'll put a poster at the end of the um at the end of the the service line and we'll give them stickers either they loved it it was okay or they never want to see it again it's a pretty simple way to just get some feedback from elementary level students um and the goal is really to start exposing them to things like chickpeas edamame hi hikma you know when they're at that level they may not want to commit to it as a full meal but if you do it as just kind of a free giveaway they may be inclined to at least try it um and then it becomes very popular when you get into the middle the
058high school um level but by then they've already seen it which is great um we do online surveys we do um on our our menu platform which is online students parents um whomever can go back in um to that platform and give it you know a one through five one through five star rating after they've had it um and that information goes right back to our on-site food service director so if they have like a carrot ginger soup one day and it gets rave reviews they know that maybe they want to fold that into the cycle menu if it doesn't get great refused and it comes off and we replace it with something else absolutely yeah um the good thing too about you speak about unlimited fruits and vegetables and getting children to try other
059stuff is that we're a company that believes in compliance obviously a lot of the districts that we've taken over have had issues with having fiscal action taken against them because the meals were not compliant and I think that's some of the the battles that had fought throughout Massachusetts the good thing about having a veggie subgroup bar for the children not only does it them five different types of vegetables weekly that they that they that they may have had before but you can also introduce like hikma edamami all these things into that that that need it and if the kid comes through the line and say they're not a big fan of the veg that's offered there you still have another opportunity to get the veg and you're also still compliant because you have the vegetable
060offered at the end of the line as well so you're complying all the way through because the children are not to take three out of the five components all the time to get a reimbursable meal but I'm not so concerned about getting the reimbursable meal I want to get the food in the kit stomach we want them to try different things um offer a very diverse program culturally and locally um and just really have just a well-rounded program for the children um Jeff you mentioned the the um Garden you want to talk a little bit more about some of the visiting chef and stuff yeah so some some of the great things that we have is we have a visiting Chef program um generally we have a lot of programs such as popups we do
061a lot of stuff that is out in the community so Popeyes is very popular for the kids but we can't offer our kids Popeyes because maybe what they coat their chicken and it's not healthy but we do these wonderful things where we have a popups right here here you go and it drives a participation so you can see over here it's our yard bird concept looks very similar to something that you get at Popeyes but it's whole brain it's whole muscle and the condiments are all there the pickles are made in house okay which is kind of exciting um another one here is a soul taco or sooso taco is this one right here Soul Taco so also Taco So Sol Taco is something that's um marinated um in a Korean marinade it's wonderful comes
062on soft shell tacos chicken beef mahi mahi we've even done certain places and it's it's gone wonderful but I I I'm I'm only excited about pop-ups because the fact that it creates um great diversity in your program and excitement for the children the children come in and it is it's just like this it's all rebranded so your World Market concept was which is one of our traditional Concepts where serve most of our Mainline items turns into yard bird for the day so the kids come in and it's not the same thing every day it's something different and they want to participate and they start talking about it and here's our Signature Series as you can see and I was just saying World Market so World Market turns into one of our pop-up Concepts so it's
063it's it's really we have such a diverse program that can be unique to any environment and we can customize it to any school so this is um all the different concepts that we run depending on the space maybe we're not running all of them on you know every day but you know maybe today we're doing um you know expressly expressly Asian concept um you know Miss rubies is a grill concept so burgers and chicken things like that um shaky Joe's for breakfast for the young ones in the elementary schools because everybody always including myself I was a food service director for 15 years before I became a district manager so one of my biggest struggles was always try to remember the young ones right because all the bells and whistles you can give to the
064older kids because generally you have more facility at the middle in high school but the elementary schools are generally just satelliting food to them so you always have to remember them so someone like shaky Joe's having smoothies in the morning for them it's phenomenal I mean you can bring your participation from a 50% to a 68% to a 72% like that but it's also giving the kids something unique something organic something healthy something that they like something that they want and something that's relevant right now there's some different stations like a faita bar y um this is the Freshman this is what we talk about with the um with the subgroup bar as you can see that's at the end of the line so when the children come through the line they still have the
065opportunity to take something like that and nothing's processed in that that's part of the thing you cannot process have anything processed on that line so it has to all be pretty much in the state it was delivered to you and cleaned up obviously and then put out fresh um some more popups can I ask a quick question yeah so who actually makes those Bowls does our staff make them or like are you just giving us the ingredients and then our team is gonna do the bowls or like put all this out under your oversight like peeling the cucumbers and doing all that or is everything coming from your factory I don't know where you're located pre-made and and then it's just going out like you're going to bring a you're going to bring in a
066huge tub of cucumbers already cut and peeled like how I just no every so everything is done on site the only time we would get anything from the prepared meals um division is if there's some sort of emergency you know all the equipment goes down there's no gas but everything um that's served in any of the schools would be made on site at the school a fresh program yeah it's it's so the ingredients come to school the chef yes and the staff prepares the food and serves it yep absolutely y okay um and all looks overwhelming it does when you look at it oh my God there's so many stuff roasted garbanzo bead it's really not anything different it's just a different application of cooking it's not anything different I mean in all honesty you
067can take a bag of processed chicken patties and pop them open and throw them on a shean just as fast as you can take a beautiful garbanzo bean put honey on it a little sea salt and roast it off same thing and you have protein and protein so it's it's just a different way of cooking it's a it's a different way of learning and it's a different way of teaching our students what's really the best option for them um Tyrell I know you did a lot of the work today with the bows so we have this really we have a cool partnership with the Humane Society um and that we actually have was it 20 plant-based recipes um that we run in our programs um in Partnership so the Humane Society developed the menus we
068said we would share them um at our districts and um that's our kind of our plant-based menu options but you did a lot of them today if you're just going to tell us a little bit about what you did for the uh the bowls um so what I've prepared today was a roasted um anami bowl and I roasted a chickpeas had fresh enami um some red peppers uh brown rice as a base and I did a soy sauce vinegar as a sauce yeah and so that um is a re would be considered a reimbursable meal um so instead of getting the spaghetti and meatballs today on the hotline students have the option to get the a bowl similar to what Tyrell made today and that qualifies as a reimbursable meal go ahead Mike has a
069question yeah can you just explain for those of us that don't know what a reimbursable meal is versus any other meal sure so a reimbursable meal meets the nslp compliance um meaning that this the district will get reimbursed from the federal government for that meal um so for example we're in Universal free right now so every student is eligible for a free meal um this the district gets like $425 cents back um or reimburse from the government for every meal that they serve that is qualifying reimbursable so when you're serving will there be meals that aren't reimbursable if you just not serve that um so we do like if student wanted to just purchase a buffalo chicken sandwich if they don't take all the components of a reimbursable meal meaning like the milk and all
070card you're right the fruit it would be just an all cart purchase so they would need to have funds on their card to be able to do that and those funds on that card that's what the state is currently paying um the there are no funds the state doesn't give funds directly to the students they just reimburse the district for every requalifying reimbursable meal that they can prove that they sered so in that casee the the student would have the paper out of pocket and the school would not be re or the student would not be reers or housing was the student no the students don't get reimbursed reimb meal when they go through the line they just don't have to pay out of pocket when they get to the Cash correct yep how would
071the kid know that communication it's about making sure that students know and our cashiers and our staff know what qualifies as a reimbursable meal so if they see a student going through let's say they took the spaghetti and meatballs but they didn't take the sides that allow it to become reimbursable our job is to remind them to take the vegetable to take the fruit and to take the milk and they're currently doing all signing should read to allart obviously going through all the lines we're big on marketing and signage all of our signage does list you know reimbursable free allart with the price on it for the children so so they know and obviously we we do do a lot of training with our staff with Ard to reimbursable meals because of the fact there's
072such a tremendous amount of fiscal action on districts and it it it's just a quick fix too to not have that happen taking three out of the five components to make sure the meal is reimbursable for the students so the district doesn't have any FAL I guess my my question is H how how does a kid even care or know like if he wants the buffalo chicken and he doesn't want the orange and the carrots he just says I don't want it yeah so how do you educate the kids it's about every team member will be I mean I'm in cafeterias every day all anybody who works for our company they're educating the children the whole way through hey what oh can I have the buffalo chicken R okay no problem make sure you take
073a veg get a fruit make sure you take a milk you know whatever they're going to take they have to take three out of the five to go through but it's it's all about communication you really have to communicate the the younger ones it's easy because they come through and you're pretty much putting it on their plate unless you know there's an allergen which we have a very we're very strict on allergens right up here right now all of our you know our platforms identify students Ries they cannot get through the line without it I don't know what your scenario is here with regard to lunch AIDS and all that but they they're an extension of our team we try to be very positive with our lunch AIDS and what not and whatnot and they're
074also adopted into our training process too because the fact that they really are the end result they're watching children out there all the time and unfortunately sometimes they're our kids and not just our company but in other companies too a kid may sneak through it's important that everybody's on the same page you know the the cafeteria staff Works closely with the school staff and we work closely with our nurses and all that as well do do they have to take a Dairy Milk to have it be reimbursable no no they they change they change that now too so there are some substitutes that are available that are considered reimbursable silk soy milk um I believe they added almond milk now although that's a tricky one because nut allergy so that's kind of one you want
075to steer away from but Soy silk soy is a big one especially Connecticut I mean we do a lot and also we offer lactate so but sometimes people who have issues with dairy still have issues with lactate so but we do offer other Alternatives yes following Julie's point if the kid does just take buffalo chicken sandwich and they pay outet for that maybe this more question for for you guys or nany but the cost set up so that it covers that cost of that sandwich only or AB we still cover some of that that's out price yeah yeah I said it was a dumb question right it's not a dumb question at all because guess what some districts eat it some districts subsidize it they say okay we're going to let the child get that
076W but we only want to charge them $125 so you're not losing on that bu you will not you will not you'll work with your with your finance committee with your superintendent um to make sure that the pricing is where you want it to be I do have a slide that goes over um some of the numbers n do do we want to go through that yeah all right thank you yeah while you're setting up I just want to make a comment that this is long overdue for the kids in our country so you guys thank you listen I'm very passionate about it yeah you can tell I left a job a long long time ago that was paying me three times what I was making but I went into New Britain schools I'm an
077inner city Kid myself yeah okays um so um grew up very poor um and I went to New Britain and with offered me a job and just all of a sudden just click me and I'm so passionate about it um do we get it right every day I'm not going to lie to you no we don't but we work very very hard to get it right and offer the best most competitive program so I love this 23 years with witzens not going anywhere GNA be here until I'm dead but hopefully I'll be able to come up and you know there exactly back the financial part of right that bu of chicken sandwich um you're saying that the price they charge it's not a loss to you uh assuming the kid has money in their account
078a lot of parents right now like I know for myself personally we're not even worried about it because we know all the state's gonna for it if the kid regardless of all education you do take make sure you take all the components you need if kid gets to the front of line they don't have the money on their account what happens then are they told no you can't eat that or you have to go back and get that that's a policy that you would have to have enforced is that create any additional food waste are we seeing problems with that in the schools and I know you mentioned something about a grant program for complexing program would that be implemented here would that help at all I don't know how that works listen we're all
079ears whatever you want to do we're going to adopt honestly we have we have such great pramming and we have a a person who is identified to do these things for you so if that's something that you want to compost it's a wonderful thing to do so yeah that's something you want do like Julie I mean yeah this looks fantastic it's long overdue but I think it's amazing your kids probably are all over it I know mind yeah point is if like you said if you give a little they will the more times they take in this country that's what we've been taught to do but if you're taught the other think about children else the one concern I know I'm sure there's a ton of waste because I'm sure there's a ton of kids
080that are like I want a bag of chips and then they're going to be forced to take an orange and like you said they're like all right this is going right in the trash but it has to be on TR they don't want it they throw it out it goes you have to make it go through the line and out through the door and they have on but they St pay for it so we're all good well I mean that's a state issue I mean I don't know why they force but yeah I mean I get it but at the same point in time I'm sure there's a Cas there's nothing we're going to do with all right thank you sure um so I I'll go through this quickly um Nancy shared with me the
081um claim forms from last year so what I did was um I did some analysis on it and then we made some projections based on what we think will happen um Within the district for the next 103 days so these numbers are all based on the stub year which would be January 2nd through the last day of school um and the way that this reads is um so we've assumed that there'll be 600 6,200 oh my god 6,325 um kind of all aart meals at the meal equivalent rate of $4 61 cents um so the 29190 and the 3161 that's what we're projecting for allart sales so this would be money that students um staff would be spending um kind of out of pocket is that no so this is consistent um with what your
082your run rate would be for the remainder of the year with a slight I think we put in a 10% um participation increase to get to that number but the I'm saying the food the cost at 461 is that our current laun price uh this is a a a meal equivalent rate um so if it's less than that it would be it would be less than than that I know ra this year but I don't know it's like $2 I don't think it's four it's 525 for an adult and it's 375 something that for a child for a child oh all right so that might even out yeah yeah I'm sorry2 for child for a child yeah all right um so then the next category um was about $1,500 worth of catering that's outside of
083the the school lunch program but that was an assumption that was put in so um anticipated Revenue outside of reimbursements is a 33851 so if we slide down um here so now we get into the reimbursable meals so we projected 77,000 um student lunches at the reimbursement rate of $438 so it's 4425 um based on the current Universal free 5 cents um the state is giving a 5cent bonus and then assuming that the district is healthy certified there's an additional eight cents so that's why we get to the 438 any questions so far on that um and then this is the anticipated um number of breakfast meals um is the district currently doing breakfast in the classroom no no okay all right so there may be some opportunity to uh to increase breakfast participation so
084for the 103 days the anticipated um reimbursement income is this 45 51541 any questions so far all right so now we get down to the costs we um we anticipate the lunch cost um the cost that it actually the amount that it actually costs to produce the meal outside of Labor and operating expenses this would just be food 425 for student lunches student breakfast at $117 adult lunches in this allart um would be $1.50 seven and then we've got catering food cost at $510 so the anticipated food cost based on the revenue numbers from the top section would be for uh 1486 um so the team members would remain District employees so we just took the um the payroll numbers provided to us by Nancy and we put that in here just so we can
085get a um a total kind of overview of what the whole program would cost so even though it's on our form the employees and that cost the the labor cost would still be District expenses um the salary is the anticipated salary for the director um along with the taxes and benefits um the other expenses would be anything outside of food and labor so we've got paper cleaning supplies commodity deliveries Insurance um office supplies are these District expenses or your expenses um anything that comes through our book would then be buil to the district so gotta um you know so this is stuff you would bill us back for yes okay um so this is an estimate yep it's an estimate licenses now if the licenses have already been paid for um with the towns then
086we don't need to have this expense so these are not these are these are assumptions um so we talked about it a little bit at at the um at the onset when Nancy was doing the overview but um so we charge a flat fee for our service we charge a management fee of $188,000 and an admin fee of $122,000 um and that's a fixed monthly expense um divided by six months um for the duration of the the contract so when you take all of the revenue all the expenses we actually show an anticipated profit to the district of $55,000 we are willing to guarantee a break even because I'm sure that there's things that we don't know about um and let's just say that we actually lose $2500 witzens has to Forfeit $2500 of our
087fee so that the the the district is at a break even is the 18,000 and the 12,000 was that monthly or you said for the six months that's for six months it is build monthly so the revenue you're projecting that comes to the district all the all the revenue goes to the district so we pay you for food and we pay you for the fees you Bill us back and then we'll pay you yep gotcha um we don't deal in rebates we don't deal in nvds um we just negotiate the best price we can with our vendors we do have pretty significant purchasing power because of the number of districts that we serve so whatever it is that comes through on our Cisco invoice is exactly what you're paying and we give you those invoices
088every month um just to be fully transparent sorry how frequently is food delivered is it like weekly or oh well yeah weekly I mean two to three times weekly okay so depending upon the size of your school district I mean you know be Monday Wednesday Friday Tuesday Thursday and then we also have the ability to have emergency POS because of binding power so all take delivery as well I know that's a lot are there questions about the financials all right what about I mean I have so many questions in so limited time seeing this for the first time uh you're saying all those expenses there are are expens back to the district including your promotions and uh our labor cost days ours because they're our employees for this year yep let's say after this year
089if we were to go forward with this is it the same setup does revenue still come here we still pay expens or is it a different you simply taking a management fee for the work you provide so it would be let's assume no inflation just 60,000 next year instead of 30 we'd have to take a look at what the stipulations are in the RFP for the the six months um that are proposed as part of this emergency contract those would be the fixed fees um you know what a contract looks like moving forward would really be dependent on the criteria outlined in the AR sure but my I guess my question is You're simply taking a flat Fe y off of what we are already doing currently as far as sales and expenses if they
090become your employees do you take on that cost how does that work well as part of this contract the employees are still District going forward in a typical contract oh typical contracts can um be be established a multitude of ways whether the employees are District employees whether they're witson employees whether they're some hybrid um I think we need to talk about I feel like it's two totally separate or at least how I'm organizing it in my brain this six month we go this way this we're probably not going back I disagree I think we need to have another meeting maybe in March or April and we cannot I mean before the budget is finalized because I get that it's going to be very minuscule for the budget but I still think that the and I'll
091have to go maybe we have to consult with Kim I feel like something like this school committee must have that proof I don't know just said no it's decision it's an operational it's an operational decision so it could technically just be mine but I didn't want it to be something that ncy and I talked about I talked about with you because I do think it's a huge leap for us it's a huge leap and I I appreciate that but I'm still wondering because it's because it's I know it's not a lot of money but it still affects the budget I'm I'm wondering do you know what I'm trying to say but we're not employing I mean we're no longer paying his salary right correct so do you see it as a discussion our budget subcommittee
092uh I'm the way that things are going this year I'm fine I appreciate that you guys gave us the courtesy to vote I see that it doesn't affect the budget much this year so I think that it would be fine but I feel like next year because of the change in how the revenue would come in if there okay so that's all I'm saying is I feel like yes Nancy I just feel like next year we need to have a a completely separate conversation that we're gonna have completely different questions for at a meeting down the road for next year we just need to focus on this year so for this year it's a a flat fee of 30,000 oh regardless let's say unless we take a loss they said then they cut out of
093their fee so these projections assume some level of your ability INE participation our purchasing power our ability and increase participation in overall efficiencies assume that's off by whatever percent in the the fee comes down to you know there's a loss instead of a $5,000 profit there's a $20,000 loss then we're going to make 10,000 for the year then we make 10,000 the fees is 30 make 10 with the hope that we sign the contract for the well that's this emergency procurement we don't know what the rules are or what the contract stipulations would be under when we don't fall under this emergency thing we're gonna have to know it by April we absolutely do so I but I think that's it's GNA be a completely different discussion and I think it's kind of cool that
094we get this trial period yes Nancy sorry I agree this is absolutely separate from where we could be next school year versus where we are today this is an emergency proc it'll be a totally different contract this is going to be monitored monthly we're going to talk about it I wish to talk about it in our subcommittee meetings yeah I wish to include our staff to get their feedback as to how they feel yeah if we I plan to post for a food service director and then we'll see where we if we're happy let's see where we are then you have to go you do you have to post to RFP this is a very big process it would have to be done in the spring and then we see where We Stand from there
095we write the RFP it's our terms right this isn't this is a this is a very different situation where we are right now versus where we if we go the RFP route in the spring so it's it's in my eyes it's entirely too different yeah we need to have two we're gonna need to have so don't ask any questions about what's going to happen next question J this yeah this your questions all right go ahead in order to get you're showing on the slides here will you need to make any changes to our current kitchens equipment or anything like that not we won't know that until we actually use the equipment we did a walk through but we don't know if all the equipment is operational assuming you do who will pay for that the
096district okay so but you would have to pay for that even if we weren't here I mean if the isn't working so that's not facility yeah that wouldn't be an additional expense aside from maintenance issues now that would have to be a school committee vote because that would be an additional Capital item that we have to purchase if we have to but I don't foresee I mean I would I would hope per yeah exactly okay so we're not even using at this time give have a salad bar one of the things they saw when they came and looked at stuff is like why aren you utilizing the salad bar like I think that I so that was great great love I mean we've clearly got a vested interest in driving participation and you know retaining
097the contract or at least you know making it enticing enough for you to want to consider a longer term contract so that's our goal Nancy who who's responsible for auditing the operation to make sure we get what they're showing me okay all right is there any other questions yeah all right assuming there'll be you your company will have staff on site in the different schools we provide an on-site general manager yeah as well as a district manager in all school right or or regardless of regardless of who or how many Carol and in your office will be doing full background checks Cory stories anything like that for just like you do with any employee absolutely our company do full background check as well fingerprinting CF all that stuff we're in school so we're very pretty
098strict yeah yeah we have a issue with security that we be yeah we just had one I I have an account speaking over in summers we had an issue with security as well and it was a weird one too because although we have the contract it's District employeed still so and we had an on-site GM as well so you know to go through the background check and all that stuff will the Woodson's employee be considered staff and get a badge should yeah okay so it'll be like a contractor to us I have one final question prise we're going to vote so they can collecting any data around since this food's been introduced to the school any behaviors you working with the school at all if like the school has seen any Behavior changes and kids
099that are we actually worked with the dairy Council uh probably for 10 years in a row to introducing classroom breakfast in inter city New Britain schools because the uh scores were plummeting bad behavior high inis of ADHD and we started introducing um a classroom breakfast and they did a study on it and the test scores went up the attention span was was greater and just a bunch of wonderful things that happened that are associated with nutrition in the classroom so thank you okay does anyone else have any other questions okay all right so we're gonna let's move the vote up are you guys ready to vote Y and and then we can release witson uh thank you thanks for much questions it looks fantastic and we we'll leave you the food so everything that's on
100the back table prepared by these two gentlemen today um if you walked into any of our accounts you would see the the same things um everything that's on there would be considered a reimbursable meal um you use some bamboo spoons for your kitchens and uh look forward to next steps okay um thank thank you