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Maryville school officials have identified the cause of the system's central cafeteria budget overruns — labor cost.

Officials recently eliminated one position, reduced 10 current employees to part time and hired part-time employees to replace the five full-time employees lost to attrition.

All reduced positions were for employees who worked between six and 6¬½ hours a day, and their hours were cut between 30 minutes and 1¬½ hours a day, said Maryville Director of Schools Stephanie Thompson. The 10 employees also lost their health benefits.

Employees will be eligible for 18 months of Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) health insurance, Thompson said. Government stimulus money will subsidize 65 percent of an employee's $491.50 payment for nine months, and employees will have to pay the full amount for the next nine months, she said.

"We've been subsidizing the cafeteria with enormous amounts of money," Thompson said. Officials had been transferring more than $600,000 each year to the central cafeteria budget for several years, she said.

When Thompson became the system's director in January 2008, school board members charged her with the task of making all the cafeterias self-supporting, she said. For the last 1¬½ years, Thompson said officials have been examining the efficiency of the school cafeterias by looking at meals per labor hour, meal cost and food cost. School officials also hired inTEAM Associates, a food service consultant firm, to evaluate the system last fall.

Administrators found the system's food cost was consistent with other school systems, and consultants identified the cost overruns as due to labor cost, Thompson said.


Eliminated system transfers as the cafeterias are to be self-supporting.

Close to self-supporting

"We were overstaffed, and our insurance costs were high. We had a lot of employees who were barely full-time (30 hours)," Thompson said.

Several positions, such as cooks and bakers, required an increase in hours, according to the analysis.

Administrators looked at every school individually and spent a considerable amount of time looking at every position, Thompson said.

"Unfortunately, there was some positions that we felt should require less hours."

Administrators are now trying to address three areas identified by consultants, Thompson said. Consultants talked to officials about reporting cafeteria data to managers and helping administrators meet the system's participation and food-cost goals, she said.

Officials have made menu changes and will offer more items that students are buying, Thompson said. The system's elementary, intermediate and middle schools have all moved to thematic menus in which one day is designated for a certain style of food such as Italian and Mexican, she said.

Student buying trends had not been previously evaluated by system administrators, according to Thompson.

"There was lots of data we weren't utilizing. We're doing a better job evaluating data now," she said.

"We'll continue to evaluate the program as we go. I feel like we're a lot closer (to self-supporting cafeterias) than a 1¬½ years ago," Thompson said. "We'll continue to try to increase participation, and we'll be conducting promotions at each school next year. We'll also invite parents to come in and eat with us."

School board members have approved a $2,260,500 central cafeteria budget for fiscal year 2009-10. Key changes to this budget include:

— Reduced employee contracts from 190 days to 187 days;

— Reduced full-time positions and benefits by five positions due to attrition;

— Reduced food costs due to 2008-2009 trends;