Budget woes challenge Buffalo area school foodservice

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Cafeteria workers at Frontier Central schools are concerned that their jobs may be affected when the district tries to plug a predicted $290,000 deficit in the food service budget this year.

“Some of the things they heard are true, some of the things they heard are not true,” said Laura Haas, president of the Frontier Central Employees Association representing support staff.

But it’s not just cafeteria workers who are worried.

The district also needs to save $1.4 million in this year’s budget to help regenerate its fund balance.

And while the superintendent and board have vowed to avoid layoffs, they acknowledge that personnel costs account for 78 percent of the budget.

The district has used $11.79 million of its unassigned fund balance in the last three to four years to balance budgets.

“That’s why you are where you are,” said John Schiavone, an accountant with Lumsden and McCormick who completed the district’s external audit. “You just can’t keep going this way, and the decisions that you make are not going to be easy, and they are going to be painful.”

“We are now, whether we like it or not, at the end of that road,” Superintendent Bret Apthorpe said. “The can cannot be kicked any farther.”

Schiavone said the property tax cap limits the district’s ability to raise revenue, leaving it little choice but to cut expenses.