A proposal to start a district-run hot lunch program at all Park Ridge elementary schools received a lukewarm response from the District 64 Board of Education.
Board members on April 25 voted 6-1 against an administrative recommendation that the district institute a hot lunch program at all five K-5 schools. Board member Bob Johnson cast the only vote in favor.
Under the most current proposal, District 64 had planned to spend $90,000 in start-up costs in order to bring in an outside food service company to serve meals four days per week. The fifth day would be reserved for a pizza fundraiser organized by each school’s parent-teacher organization or association, according to a FAQ sheet on District 64’s website.
The company that administrators had selected to prepare the food was Arbor Management, which already provides lunches at the district’s two middle schools, Superintendent Laurie Heinz said.
Based on food sales at these schools and an anticipated 50 percent student participation rate, the district could see an annual surplus of about $69,000 if each elementary school student is charged $3.75 per meal, a memo to the school board from Chief School Business Official Luann Kolstad said.
Heinz told the board that, according to a March survey of parents, 65 percent of just over 1,000 respondents said they would like a district-run hot lunch program offered three to four days per week.
“We are doing this as a service to parents,” she said of the proposal.
But board members expressed opposition, citing the cost of the program, the need for more school staff to coordinate it and the potential for food waste.
“I just haven’t been convinced this is the right time to do this,” said board member Scott Zimmerman, explaining that there are capital projects and other initiatives the district is currently tackling. He added that he would rather see the administration and teaching staff “focus on other objectives,” like “studying all-day kindergarten or something along those lines.”
Board President Anthony Borrelli said that while he thought a district-led hot lunch is a “great idea,” his primary concern was cost. Many of the survey responses, he said, indicated that parents favored a hot lunch program for the convenience of it.
“That’s an awful lot of money that we’re putting out for convenience factors,” Borrelli said.
Board member Bob Johnson said he saw district-provided lunches as beneficial.
“It could result in better nutrition than what they’re bringing to school today,” he said.
Currently, parent-teacher organizations or associations at each elementary school conduct their own hot lunch days, which take place once or twice each week, Heinz said.
Bridget Arena, co-president of the Washington School PTO, said the programs are paid for by parents through the cost of meals, and parent volunteers help serve the food. Craig Rutherford of Kids Healthy Kitchen said he supplies food to Roosevelt, Washington and Franklin schools twice each week and to Field School once a week.
But District 64 officials threatened that changes in state health regulations could impact this voluntary meal program during the next school year. The FAQ sheet put out by the district in April said that beginning July 1, the Illinois Department of Public Health will “require a certified food handler to be present when food is being served. The elementary PTO/PTAs do not have the consistent volunteers available to satisfy this requirement to the satisfaction of the city of Park Ridge Health Department.”
The change in health guidelines was cited by the district as a reason why a district-run hot lunch program at the elementary school level had been proposed.
Messages left with Park Ridge’s health inspectors, Laura Dee and Tim Schwarz, were not returned Thursday.
In an email to school principals and PTO/PTA presidents following the school board’s vote, Heinz wrote that during the 2016-17 school year, “the expectations will be that each school will design its own program to meet the particular desires of your local parent community as they align to the realities of the health code.”
Arena and Chandra Kearney, co-presidents of the Roosevelt School PTO, had both urged the school board to approve the district program during the April 25 meeting and expressed unhappiness with the vote.
“I think we’ll get backlash from many parents,” Kearney said, explaining that many wanted the district to offer a hot lunch program.
“It’s disappointing because you had three principals who stood up and said they want the program, and then [the board] says ‘no,'” added Arena.
Arena was referring to Brett Balduf, principal of Carpenter School; Kevin Dwyer, of Roosevelt School; and Katie Kelly of Field School, all of whom expressed support for daily hot lunches.
“If this is what the families want, I want to do it,” Kelly said.
The board also heard from two speakers who expressed their concerns about a lunch program.
Michelle Fiore-Cwiertniak, a teacher at Field School, said there was not enough support at each individual school to justify the expense.
“I just don’t think there’s a need for it at this time,” she said.
Twitter: @Jen_Pioneer
