Schools switch food services

CITY HALL — In his first Board of Education meeting since taking over as Burbank Unified School District’s new superintendent, Kevin Jolly on Thursday took a back seat to trustee Larry Applebaum, who grilled a pair of competing food service vendors hoping to win a contract.

After hearing starkly different proposals from the companies, trustees opted to end a 20-year relationship with Sodexo School Services to turn over the rights to the district’s food services department to Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp., which currently services USC, UC Irvine and Angel Stadium, among other regional institutions.

Aramark, a $13-billion national corporation, does not currently serve any school districts in California and had lofty goals for boosting student participation in the district’s food programs by about 25% for elementary school lunches. It was part of a batch of goals trustees found unrealistic.

But Applebaum pressed company executives to guarantee a return of $240,000 after one year of service and at least another $240,000 if Aramark’s contract was extended for a second year.

Company executives also committed to expanding the district’s offerings to include breakfast and a midmorning snack service within the 2009-10 academic year, and to taking responsibility for any additional labor costs that those promises might trigger.

“From my perspective, there seems to be no downside,” Applebaum said.

But the board was torn on making the change, with President Dave Kemp and Clerk Ted Bunch voting against making the switch after voicing doubt that Aramark could achieve its goals and proposals without increasing labor costs.

Sodexo’s former district manager, Ralph Peschek, told the board that any additional service for breakfast or a midmorning snack period would require additional staffing that the food services department could not afford.

But Aramark executives contended that even if it weren’t possible, they would make up for any additional costs and would still pay the district its $240,000.

“We are committing, as an organization, as a corporation, to making this a showcase account,” said Aramark business development director Mark Waterbury, explaining that the company serves more than 450 school districts nationwide, but was hoping to break into West Coast public school markets by turning Burbank Unified into a sweeping success.