The WW-P school board has awarded an $11,000 contract to Elliott Seif and Jim LoGiudice, who will serve as consultants to the K-12 social studies program review.
The contract was awarded during the board’s meeting on May 11. The contract covers travel expenses.
The consultants will work collaboratively with the committees, headed by a school principal and the respective supervisors for social studies and language arts. The committee will also include faculty members representing all district school levels and a member of the board of education, who will serve as liaison to the board, parents, and students.
The district also expects the consultants’ work to include class visits and interviews of staff at all district schools, conducting of focus groups with district parents and students and recent graduates; submittal of an evaluation report and recommendations; and four days of observation of classes at each of the buildings.
Sodexo Contract. In other business during the May 11 meeting, the board also voted to authorize the second year of the food services management contract, effective July 1, with Sodexo Management Inc.
Under the terms of the contract, the district will pay Sodexo a management fee in an amount equal to 21 cents per meal and meal equivalent for the 2010-’11 contract year. Sodexo guarantees in the contract that the district will receive a minimum annual financial return of $89,986.95 for the upcoming school year.
The second year of the contract was authorized just months after a group representing SEIU Local 32BJ, based in Newark, approached the board, urging it to look at its contract with Sodexo. According to a handout presented to residents at the meeting, in the 2008-’09 school year, Sodexo charged the WW-P district $78,737 for workers compensation insurance and liability insurance. “We estimate that this is $21,000 more than Sodexo actually paid for insurance,” the handout stated.
Since then, board officials have dismissed the claim. “This claim was based upon a study that SEIU commissioned without input from any impartial sources,” the school district said in a statement. “It is important to note that insurance premiums vary among providers. In addition, large companies often self insure, making ‘proof’ of cost a more complicated matter than simply showing a third-party invoice.”
“Sodexo’s 2008-2009 charge to WW-P Regional School District is in line with its original proposal, which was similar to other company’s proposals for coverage costs,” the district also stated. “It is very important to realize that in the past eight years, not one dollar of budgeted general fund expenditure dollars has been spent to subsidize food services, and our meal costs to students are among the average for Mercer County.”
