Woodbridge schools hire back some cafeteria workers; move will eat into profits

by Sergio Bichao on Jun 30th | Email

WOODBRIDGE, NJ -- Some of the cafeteria workers who lost their jobs last month to a privatization plan will return this fall with their jobs and salaries intact.

The Board of Education voted Tuesday to rehire seven of the 50 cafeteria workers the district laid off last month. The chosen seven each have more than 22 years of experience in the district.

School board members said they wanted to allow these employees to reach their 25th year on the state public employee pension system with their current salary, affording them full pension, life insurance and early retirement benefits.

The move means the private food service company the district hired will guarantee a financial return next year of just $58,000, instead of the $150,000 payment school administrators touted in May before approving the deal with Chartwells Educational Dining Services.

Other employees rehired by Chartwells will be paid about 20 percent less than what they earned as district employees and will be dropped from the pension system.

The district still is expected to benefit financially. A guaranteed payment of any amount would be a complete turnaround from the annual cafeteria deficits in the past decade. Last year’s deficit was $670,000, business administrator Dennis DeMarino said. The state insists school cafeterias be self-sustaining; districts with chronic deficits may face sanctions.

Board member Judy Leidner voted against the rehiring.

“I’m not against hiring back any employee, I want the whole cafeteria back,” she said. “I don’t understand why, to begin with, the board went with Chartwells at all.”

DeMarino and board member Brian Molnar said that the cafeteria workers’ alternative business plan, which included furloughs and a lunch price increase, was unsustainable. Chartwells, on the other hand, has promised to remodel cafeterias and market school lunches to increase sales.

“We would never be able to give cafeteria workers the capital they need to improve the cafeteria setting,” Molnar said.