Food Service Workers Escape Cuts

by Rachel Dahl — The Churchill County School District Board of trustees met last night to approve the tentative budget for the 2019-20 school year. Faced with a $2.5 million shortfall, (see Dowd Explains DSA Cuts...) trustees considered budget cuts provided by superintendent Summer Stephens and Director of Business Operations Phyllys Dowd. Cuts were presented to the district budget committee last week, where members of the committee and public expressed their concerns about suggested cuts in a lengthy meeting. (see School Board Meets Tonight to Set Tentative Budget). Many of those same concerns were echoed at the board meeting last night, including opposition to the suggestion that eight district food service workers be cut and transferred to employment with the contractor that provides district food service. See Figure 1 and 2 for the proposed cuts to the 2019-20 CCSD budget. These cuts were accepted and the tentative budget was approved. Trustee Phil Pinder abstained from the vote as his wife works for the district and would be affected by the cuts. Fred Buckmaster voted against, and trustees Kathryn Whitaker, Matt Hyde, Carmen Schank, Amber Getto, and Trisha Strasdin voted to approve. Once the budget was approved, in a separate agenda item, trustees addressed the issue of Reduction In Force, working from a sheet provided during the meeting and available here in Figure 3. Trustees Hyde and Schank opposed cutting the eight food service workers and were committed to the agreement made in April of 2016 when the district originally contracted with Chartwells. During that time, trustees agreed that anyone who worked for the food service department would remain a district employee, while new hires would be employees of Chartwells. Through attrition, the existing employees would eventually be phased out of the district budget and employment. According to Dowd, Chartwells has agreed to guarantee workers their existing salaries including the step raise they are scheduled to receive for next year. However, the eight workers would no longer be eligible for district benefit package including continuation in the PERS system. They would also not be eligible for re-employment should the budget be restored after adjournment if the legislature in June. The cut would save $95,000 in a budget of $28 million. President of the board, Whitaker, who was also on the board when the Chartwells contract was approved, and trustee Trisha Strasdin opposed the motion made by Schank that would approve a RIF of the proposed positions (Figure 3) except the food service workers, taking them off any RIF list for the rest of this budgeting cycle. Whitaker asked Hyde if he were really willing to pull out the food service workers who this way are at least guaranteed a job, saying that there would have to be cuts found somewhere to meet that $95,000. “Are you prepared to vote next week,” asked Whitaker, “even if it costs someone their job?” “I made a commitment and I’m not supporting this cut,” said Hyde. The proposed RIF list, Figure 3, was approved, minus the eight food service workers. Hyde, Schank, Getto, and Buckmaster approved, Strasdin and Whitaker opposed, and Pinder abstained due to the same conflict — his wife is a food service employee. This action allows the Human Resource department to meet the contractual notification schedules to issue the RIF notices, and the district has an approved tentative budget to meet the state deadline of April 15th. Work will continue, however, to formulate a budget that will allow the district to meet their strategic planning efforts and serve the students of Churchill County. Stephens said she will continue working on this issue. “We have to do a better job in this district, we are not 100% proficient in this budget process,” she said. “We have to be thinking about each item, and I assure you that is literally all we’ve been doing. None of these things are great choices.” Continue reading The Fallon Post for more on the budgeting process and follow up on the other issues raised at the board meeting.     .