By Elizabeth Hacala
Bedford’s new teachers’ contract and a small across-the-board school lunch price increase were voted during the May 9 School Committee meeting.
The 2017-2020 Teachers’ Contract
Superintendent Jon Sills presented the proposed 2017-2020 contract. The three-year contract provides a 2% cost of living adjustment (COLA) in the first and third years, as well as a 2.5% COLA during the second year. The contract provides stipends for some staff who are currently performing after-school work without compensation. The contract would also allow staff to use one sick day for religious observance. Finance Committee will review the contract as part of their May 25 meeting.
Lunch Prices
Ken Whittier, Director of Food Services, presented an update on the Bedford school lunch program. Nutrikids, a pre-payment system for meals, has been well received in all the schools. Davis School has had a card based system for a number of years and this past year a pin-code system has been rolled out to the other three schools. This approach allows students to buy meals or snacks with either cash or their account balance. The program also allows parents to review students’ accounts and make an online payment if desired. The system has streamlined meals in all kitchens and cut down on paperwork.
The food service staff continues to work to meet the sodium targets established in the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids act of 2010. Whittier explained the challenges of working to meet the lower sodium targets. Staff are encouraging students to choose more fresh fruits and vegetables through programs like “Lunch Toppers” in the middle and high schools, as well as “Try it Tuesday,” which introduces students to produce they might not have encountered. Both programs were well received.
The cost of school lunches next year will rise by $0.10 across the board. This new price still puts the cost of our meals $0.06 below the federally mandated minimum average of $2.85. The difference will be covered by state reimbursement. Whittier explained that the USDA requires a minimum lunch price to ensure communities are not underpricing the cost of meals for students who pay full price. With the increase of $0.10, the food service budget is initially projected to run a deficit of $1,275.28 out of a total budget of over $590,000. Whittier indicated he thought they had a good chance to break even next year.
Both Davis School principal Beth Benoit and Lane School principal Rob Ackerman updated the School Committee on their school’s improvement plans during the May 9 meeting. Those updates will be reported in a forthcoming article.
More about this meeting: At its May 9 meeting, the School Committee voted unanimously to approve both the 2017/2018 calendar and Religious and Cultural Holidays Policy. The details of both were reviewed in a prior article: (https://thebedfordcitizen.org/2017/05/school-committee-approves-20172018-school-calendar-new-religious-holiday-policy/) The Religious and Cultural Holidays Policy is a two-year pilot program which will be reviewed at the end of that period.
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