Sodexo, Columbus Schools Agree on Payback Amount

Columbus (OH) City Schools and dining services provider Sodexo have agreed on a $1.7 rebate payment to the school district for operating losses in the school meal program during the 2009-10 school year, reports the Columbus Dispatch. The payment was delayed while the district and its outsource meals provider worked out the amount of money lost in the program, with Sodexo calculating it at $512,000 and Columbus City Schools at $2.4 million.

The agreement means the district will now renew Sodexo's $13 million contract for the current school year, including a proviso that the company's liability for program losses this year is capped at $500,000. Columbus had self-operated its school meals program until last year, running up a deficit of $2.8 million in the $25.5 million program in 2008-09, its last under self operation, which had necessitated subsidies from the general fund to make up the shortfall.