BERNE — Frank Rinaldi offered "tough love" to the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School District, said its superintendent, Steven Schrade.

At a meeting Monday, Rinaldi, the president of Slant Consultants, of Clifton Park, delivered an evaluation of the district’s food services. BKW had hired Rinaldi’s firm for $1,800.

Chief among Rinaldi’s recommendations is maximizing the efficiency of the school-lunch labor force.
"When a district subsidizes a program and puts money into it, you do not want to subsidize inefficiency," Rinaldi said.

In the 2004-05 school year, the district had to subsidize the food program $62,172. That year, Rinaldi pointed out, 77 percent of the program’s $316,398 revenue went towards labor costs. This school year, he said, the district has only budgeted $25,000 to help the cafeteria.

In his report, Rinaldi writes that, in order for the program to become self-sufficient, the district should renegotiate the terms of the current labor contract to provide health benefits only to employees working more than six hours per day.
In his presentation, Rinaldi said he did not recommend cutting back on the hours of lunch employees. However, he said, "There is time in the day to do more things."

According to his findings, Rinaldi said, the BKW food program serves 13.2 revenue-generating meals per labor hour, below the recommended rate of 18 to 20 meals per labor hour.
"A total of five employees are paid for two hours per day, five days per week to do nothing," Rinaldi writes in his report. "This is 50 labor hours per week that can be used to significantly reduce food costs by eliminating the purchase of expensive ‘prepared food.’"
Rinaldi said the excess employees should be "put to work" making more things from scratch, like pizza, cookies, and rolls, thereby saving the program money on pre-made food.

In his report, Rinaldi notes that all cafeteria employees take a half-hour lunch beak each day plus two 15-minute breaks, all at the end of the work day.
"This is simply a total misuse of district time," Rinaldi writes. ""Regardless of when staff is entitled to a lunch break or rest break, [program manager Debbie Rosko] must schedule breaks by individuals in order that the kitchen does not completely ‘shut down’ at 1 p.m. when everyone takes a break at the same time."
Also, Rinaldi said, "You need to find ways to increase revenue and the number of meals served."

To do this, he recommended:

—Increasing lunch participation by a minimum of 10 to 15 percent;

—Aggressively promoting breakfast at school;

—Maximizing participation by eligible free and reduced-price students;

—Increasing the price of milk from 25 cents to 40 cents per half-pint;

—Eliminating the use of a beverage distributor to fill and service the vending machines in favor of negotiating with Coca-Cola or Pepsi to place its machines in the cafeteria, at no charge to the district; and

—Offering a selection of limited snack food on the high-school serving line as well as the snack window, preventing students from having to stand in two lines.
"Unless the cost of labor can be significantly addressed or program participation increased or a combination of both, the program cannot achieve self-supporting status," Rinaldi writes.

Rosko’s response

"I think that his report has given me the ability to makes changes that, in the past, would have met with strong resistance," Rosko said in response to Rinaldi.

Rosko said she will be evaluating how labor hours are used. She pointed out that tight space in the high school cafeteria restricts traffic flow and discourages some students from eating there.
On free lunch, she said, "I need to find out why students who are supposed to be able to receive free meals are not participating."

There is no way other students can tell the difference between students who receive free meals and others who have paid in advance, she said.

To help the ratio of meals-to-labor hours, Rosko said, she’s planning on moving a lunch employee to staff a snack station during the school’s 13th period, when students are preparing to begin sports practices and other after-school activities.

Another new development, Rosko said, is a cold-food breakfast line at the elementary school, which will cut back on the amount of time students will have to stand in line to get breakfast.

The school board asked Rosko if the lunch staff could make more food from scratch, as Rinaldi recommended.
"Working with what we have here, not really," she responded. The program lacks the necessary equipment, she said. "Someone actually suggested to me, ‘Why don’t you make your own chicken nuggets"’ It’s impossible. It’s just impossible," Rosko said.

Other business

In other business at the March 6 meeting, the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board:
—Heard estimates from Cataldo, Waters, & Griffith, architects, on proposed "mini-projects" to replace the roof over a portion of the elementary school and update the fire-alarm system in the elementary and high schools to meet the latest codes.

The firm said, at most, the roof would cost $80,000 and the fire-systems $40,000 each. To qualify for state funding, the firm said, the district would have to apply for each project separately.

The board postponed a vote on the projects to next month; and

—Voted, 3 to 1, to advertise the Westerlo school building for lease in three local papers: The Enterprise, The Greenville Press, and The Greenville Local.

Board member Edward Ackroyd voted against the motion. Board member Karen Storm was absent.
"Personally, I think you’re wasting your money," Ackroyd said. "We’ve only had one bite in what" Two years""

The current tenant is the Helderberg Christian School.