Peggy Revell
Cost, safety, and procedure were among the issues raised by trustees at last night’s Rainy River District School Board meeting after Fort Frances High School began the school year without cafeteria services for its students.
The situation arose after the contract came up for tender back in June—and no one submitted a bid.
Now the board has opted to have Fort High’s hospitality students take on running the cafeteria as part of their coursework—with this program to be “up within a week or so,” noted Superintendent of Education Casey Slack.
But trustee Dan Belluz raised concerns over plans for the cafeteria last night—questioning both the costs and communication over the issue.
“We’ve had relatively few problems that I am aware of in the last 15 years as far as that cafeteria’s concerned,” said Belluz.
“It’s been run efficiently, the menu has been there, the prices have been there.”
As first reported in the Aug. 24 edition of the Times, Kathy Cuthbertson of Kathy’s Katering, who had operated the high school cafeteria over the past nine years, chose not to submit a bid after she learned the updated demands of the tender would not make it feasible business-wise.
At last night’s board meeting, Belluz said he didn’t even know about the issue concerning the cafeteria until it was first reported in the Times.
While trustees had been told there had been no bid on the cafeteria catering tender, they hadn’t been informed there wasn’t going to be any service at the start of the school year.
“Up until that time, I didn’t even know we had a problem,” remarked Belluz, saying he would have liked to see the issue brought up to trustees earlier, and the notification that was given to students and parents.
While having the hospitality program run the cafeteria would be a learning experience for students, Belluz questioned whether it would end up costing the board money “over and above.”
“Who is going to be supervising this cafeteria?” he asked. “Are we going to have a $100,000 teacher doing a job that maybe we could hire somebody else for $35,000?
“It’s more than supervision. It’s ordering, it’s pricing, it’s menu, it’s presentation in running—call it a restaurant because that’s what it is,” Belluz added, wondering how much of this time would be volunteer work on behalf of the teacher.
Belluz recalled that more than 15 years ago, the cafeteria was run by the school/board and it had a deficit every year of probably $50,000.
“This is like 15 years ago, so what does that translate to in today’s figures?” he asked.
Director of Education Heather Campbell said the board had hoped there would be a bid on the cafeteria tender, and was surprised when there wasn’t one.
She noted students were informed of the cafeteria situation during registration time, as well as during back-to-school assemblies.
The number of microwaves at the school also was increased, Campbell added, so that students would be able to warm up their food—and there were at least 200 people the first day “using the cafeteria fine.”
As for potential costs, Campbell said there are some minimal start-up costs, such as buying tools for the kitchen and initial food purchases.
“But we certainly look to recoup that—recover that over time with competitive pricing and a healthy but attractive menu for our students,” she stressed.
“We’re looking forward to giving the students an opportunity to put the skills they learned in the hospitality course to action,” added Campbell.
“And we’re certainly looking at other options if this doesn’t take hold.”
In the meantime, Campbell said the board is putting its confidence in Fort High teacher Kelly Connor, who has taken on the task of setting up the cafeteria as part of the hospitality program.
She also pointed to how Connor had built the hospitality program in the six years since the board received funding to install a high-skills kitchen.
With eight classes scheduled into this classroom over the year, Campbell said it “certainly is a very viable program.”
“And it’s hands-on learning because it gives the kids a chance to look at menu planning, making sure they meet the healthy schools requirements, looking at pricing, costing, time as far as making meals for students,” she reasoned.
“I think it’s a really valuable experiential learning activity.”
Teachers have been working hard since August to research Ministry of Education expectations when it comes to the healthy food and beverage policies, noted Slack, while also checking all the information on curriculum.
They also have been looking into how other schools with a similar program have been running.
“It’s going to be a student-driven initiative, and we expect a wonderful success story to come out of this hospitality program,” Slack assured trustees.
Pointing to the Specialist High School Major in manufacturing which Fort High is launching this year, Slack said in other schools, this specialized major has been set up for hospitality—something that is a future possibility here.
But also expressing concern was trustee David Kircher, who questioned the timeline of getting the cafeteria sorted out for students.
“I think the way this has happened and developed, it needs to be addressed,” he remarked, noting the board knew well in advance that this was the final year of the existing catering contract before it had to be re-tendered.
It also was known that there was the possibility there wouldn’t be a caterer for the cafeteria due to the new provincially-mandated healthy foods policy, Kircher added, and that there was the possibility of the hospitality program taking over the cafeteria’s kitchen.
“Why did it take so long to open up these avenues for [Connor]?” asked Kircher.
Currently the high school is “not doing anything to feed the students healthy food,” he worried, with students now having to bring in food from home.
“Or they’ll go stampeding across the highway,” he said, pointing to the safety issue of having students now crossing King’s Highway to get to McDonald’s.
While Kircher said he doesn’t have a problem with extending the school’s hospitality program, under the procedure it would have been possible to have kept the caterer on for an interim, month-by-month basis until something different could be implemented.
“To me, that would be a wiser course of action—and a safer one,” he remarked.
Kircher also stressed the idea of the board being a corporate citizen given it’s one of the largest employees in the district.
“Unlike even Thunder Bay or southern Ontario, we in this area have only so many people to draw from, and so I think it’s fairly important to deal with the community in a fair and equitable manner as best as we can,” he said.
