Same company, different name for Medford schools food service

A new name and promised menu changes are in store for Medford Area Public School District as board members approved a new five-year contract with K-12 by Elior.

The Pennsylvania based company K-12 by Elior, previously known as A’Viands, was one of three firms seeking Medford’s food service contract, the other two were Aramark and Chartwell. The food service contract process is heavily regulated by the Department of Public Instruction with a request for proposal process where prospective providers are assigned points based on a series of priority areas with cost being the dominant factor in it.

During the finance committee meeting prior to the start of the school board meeting, finance director Audra Brooks said the points were tabulated by the DPI which showed Elior with 85 points, compared to Chartwell and Aramark which had less. Under the contract, Elior has guaranteed the school district will receive $93,109 per year in food service revenue.

“Aramark and Chartwell had very nice proposals,” Brooks said, noting that they just fell short in the number of points. Under the proposal, Brooks noted that Elior included new menu options.

“We have heard that 100 times already,” said committee member Steve Deml, noting the district has been promised menu changes in the past but hasn’t seen them.

“What it came down to is unknowns,” said board president Dave Fleegel, describing it as the difference between working with someone where you know what to expect versus worrying about who you might get.

Fleegel also noted that despite it being a five-year contract, the board decides whether or not to renew it every year. “If there wasn’t movement on menus, there would be a lot of stern communications at the end the of the first year,” Fleegel said.

Under the new contract, the food service provider cannot increase the cost to the district by more than 3% each year. Brooks said this has been a reset since COVID-era contracts that allowed for increases up to the consumer price index (CPI) rate. Any increase above the amount in the contract would need to be up to the school board.

“That is one of the levers we have,” said finance committee chairman Brian Hallgren. Members of the finance committee voted unanimously to award the new contract to Elior. At the full board meeting on Monday evening, board members agreed and voted to approve the contract.

In other action, committee members: Received an update on the other post employment benefits (OPEB) trust fund. This is money the district sets aside in a trust to pay for post-retirement benefits promised to district employees who retire with amounts based on years of service and job classification. A few years ago, the district switched new employees to a payas- you go system so the pool funded by OPEB is a closed group. Every other year the district has to do an actuarial study on the OPEB to determine if it is properly funded. Brooks reported that it is at 90% funding. Each year, the district budgets money to go into OPEB and in July the board will vote on how much to add for this year. She explained that while the district does not have to put anything into OPEB, the amount the district puts in will be eligible for state aids.

Approved giving Brooks the flexibility to pay for more than $400,000 curriculum change for English Language Arts with this year’s budget dollars to reduce the impact on next school year’s budget. Under Act 20 requirements, state government required districts to select from among a small handful of approved companies for ELA curriculum. While Act 20 promised state funding for these ELA changes, that funding has not been released by the legislature in reaction to line item vetos made in the last budget by Gov. Tony Evers.