School board cuts cafeteria supervisor position

WEST MILFORD — After impassioned presentations from residents - some who are also employees in the district's Food Services department - the West Milford Board of Education eliminated the supervisor of Food Services position, ending the career of a 24-year employee in the district.

This is after two years of having Pomptonian Food Service Management Company come in and run the department. Pomptonian was hired two years ago in an effort to make the Food Services department more efficient and profitable. The district was losing money even after cafeteria workers took a self-imposed pay freeze. The hope with Pomptonian was to have better purchasing power and to replace district workers as they retired with the lower-paid Pomptonian staff workers, making the department self-sufficient. That hasn't been the result.

Losses to the district have increased with Pomptonian. Before the food services management company took over, the district lost $48,000 in 2009-2010, then spiked to $127,000 the following year. When Pomptonian was hired, the losses soared to $167,000 and, so far this year, over $200,000.

Mark Vidovich, president of Pomptonian, gave a presentation to the board and the public Tuesday night. He said Pomptonian has implemented a point of sale system at the high school, lowered food costs to students and saved the district $100,000. However, the district's losses have increased under Pomptonian. He blamed that on a drop in enrollment and employee costs.

Vidovich said Pomptonian services 84 school districts, most of which are completely staffed by Pomptonian employees. District cafeteria workers in West Milford make an average of $15.82. Pomptonian employees earn $10.60. Benefits cost the district $200,000 for food services employees he said while Pomptonian typically pays just $20,000 for health insurance for its employees.

Board members question the figures

Board of education Trustee Jim Foody questioned Pomptonian's reported management fee, which is based on the number of meals sold. Last year, it was $85,000 for the school year. Through March of the 2012-2013 school year, it has been $65,000.

Trustee Marilyn Schultz commented that the promise of having more buying power and lower cost of food doesn't seem true.

Trustee Matt Conlon disagreed with Vidovich's report regarding the decrease in sales.

Board President Dave Richards asked Vidovich about his agreement with the Paramus School District. There, Pomptonian guarantees $25,000 a year given back to the district. The department is completely Pomptonian employees.

The public is heard
Before the board made it's decision, members of the public and employees in the department spoke.

Lois Wolfe, a 15-year cafeteria employee of the district, said they had two years for Pomptonian to cut costs but instead the losses have almost doubled this school year. She questioned why the supervisor of Food Services' salary was taken out of the cafeteria budget instead of being included in the district supervisors budget like it is done for other departments.

Wolfe said the cafeteria workers were forced to take a 15 percent pay cut this year to continue working for the district. Cafeteria workers haven’t had a raise in four years and they lost their clothing allowance.

“At this time we still don’t know if we have a job for the new school year,” she said.

She said she was opposed to the board eliminating the supervisor of Food Service position, thus terminating the employment of a dedicated employee of over 24 years, Sharon Sieber.

“She (Sieber) has been a cafeteria supervisor for the last 14 years with productive evaluations. Why would you want to get rid of someone with the expertise of running eight schools, dealing with the ordering, government forms, and most of all dealing with the students and their families with understanding and compassion?”

Wolfe said cafeteria staff was not consulted on how to cut costs.

But it was Hans Weilandt, a West Milford resident, parent, taxpayer and self-described neighbor of Sieber, who presented the most comprehensive argument in opposition to the district’s elimination of Seiber’s position, and for the district to discontinue use of Pomptonian altogether. Weilandt had a PowerPoint presentation but was told he couldn't present it due to time constraints. Instead, he printed out the slides and gave them to the board members. He said he used data from the district, including the losses prior to Pomptonian and after. He contends that the losses are from management fees paid to Pomptonian as well as a decrease in revenue and food sales.

Staff wages and the supervisor's salary, he said, were 21.8 percent lower than the management fee paid to Pomptonian. Using a graph, he said there were no positive changes with the use of the management company. Employee salaries are the same and cost per meal has dropped, but the fee per lunch paid to Pomptonian has risen 20 percent. He asked who would be taking on the duties of Sieber. He implored the board to look at the facts before eliminating the position.

Sieber's job is gone
Some board members said they should put off the vote to eliminate the position to look at all the information presented.

“Today is the most information I have received all year,” said Schultz.

Conlon said if a voter were taken, he would abstain because he needed time to look at all of the information. Foody said that in light of the new information, it would be prudent not to vote at this time.

But the majority of the board disagreed. Trustees Kevin Babbitt, Wayne Gottlieb, Inga Koeppe, David Richards and Donna Richards voted to eliminate the position. Greg Bailey was absent.

They did add Sieber to the non-certified personnel list of substitute secretaries, building aides and cafeteria aides.

What do you think of the decision by the school board? Go to westmilfordmessenger.com and tell us.