District's battle over outsourcing drags on

BRISTOL, Conn. — The Board of Education approved a 2015-16 budget for school food services in the amount of $2,785,770, which will go on to the Board of Finance for consideration.

The budget is separate from the $110.2 million school budget the board also approved recently.

Jill Fitzgerald, chairman of the board’s finance committee, said that food services has a projected operating deficit of $277,486 for the current school year.

In recent years, the board has been in an ongoing battle to outsource food services, which has been dealt several legal setbacks and now appears to be on hold.

In May 2014, the school board voted 5-3, with its Republican majority prevailing, to sign a contract with Long Island-based Whitsons Culinary Group, effective July 1, on the premise that Whitsons would not only eliminate the cafeteria services’ chronic financial deficits but make money for the district.

The action came after months of protests by parents and the cafeteria workers.

The school board had 60 days to void the contract, which happened in the wake of a state Board of Labor Relations’ decision that the board negotiated in bad faith a tentative agreement with Local 2267, the union that represents the cafeteria workers.

The most recent setback came in January when a judge denied an appeal to stay a state decision that the board must honor its agreement with 53 school cafeteria workers.
New Britain Superior Court Judge Carl Schuman denied the appeal of a 2014 ruling by the state Board of Labor Relations that the school board must honor its tentative agreement with the cafeteria workers’ union.