The first meeting of the year for the Lowndes County School District Board of Trustees was held Friday, with board members hearing updates on various projects, recognizing administrators and students and hearing a proposal from a food service management company.
The first order of business, however, was the election of new officers. Brian Clark was elected board president (replacing Jane Kilgore) while Wes Barrett was chosen as vice president (replacing Robert Barskdale) and Kilgore was elected as secretary (replacing Barrett).
The board also re-appointed Jeff Smith as board attorney and Joey Henderson as board architect.
All positions serve six-year terms.
The board heard from Mark Aguilera of Sodexo Food Services, outlined how the district could benefit from contracting out all or a portion of its food service operations.
“I guess I should deal first with the elephant in the room,” Aguilera said. “Losing jobs is not a part of the equation. In fact, in our years of working with schools, we generally find that we add jobs.
“This is the district’s program,” he said. “The program you choose won’t be changed, it will be enhanced.”
Aguilera said a study of the district’s current food service indicates a partnership with his company would save money, improve the quality of the food and increase federal reimbursements through bringing more students into the program and producing less food waste.
“Right now, your participation in breakfast is at 27 percent, which is low,” he said. “If you get that up to 50 percent, it would increase revenue by $119,000 and an additional 1,233 students would be eating breakfast.”
He said 30 percent of the district’s students eat school lunches. Increasing that percentage by 30 percent would increase revenue by $245,000 and feed 1,275 more students.
Aguilera said another advantage was cutting down on waste.
“What we have found is that even students who are getting free or reduced lunches aren’t eating the food,” he said. “We address that by providing far more menu items and creating separate menus for elementary, middle school and high school because food preferences change as children get older.”
The board took no action after Aguilera’s presentation.
In other business, Henderson updated the board on the district’s current projects.
“The New Hope sewer system will be transitioned over (to Columbus Light & Water) next Friday at 10 a.m.,” Henderson said.
Henderson said work on the new Caledonia Elementary School continues.
“The concrete slab work has been completed as well as all the block walls in all classroom wings,” Henderson said. “Right now, we anticipate a fall completion, so at some point you might want to start thinking about a transition into the new school during the Christmas break.”
In other business, the board recognized its administrators of the year — Percy Lee (LCSD vocational director), Cynthia McMath (principal, West Lowndes High School) and Robert Sanders (principal, West Lowndes Elementary School).
The board also recognized first place winners for its LCSD Reading Fair.
The overall winner was Reid Fisel (Caledonia Elementary). Other first-place winners were: Harper Whitworth, Kayla Hartie (Caledonia Elementary), Abbie Garrard (Caledonia Elementary), Ty Laster (Caledonia Elementary), Samuel Richardson (West Lowndes Middle), Cassie Dick (New Hope Elementary), Anquarius Harkins (West Lowndes Middle), Alyssa Conner (Caledonia Elementary), Gavin Rurka (Caledonia Elementary), Ryan Macasek (Caledonia Elementary), Madison Jackson (West Lowndes Elementary), Max Hollis (Caledonia Elementary), Shardashia Jackson (West Lowndes Middle) and Lauren Bell (West Lowndes Middle).
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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