School board renews food services contract

0
85

NAUGATUCK — The Board of Education this month approved renewing its food services contract with Sodexo for another year.

The contract stipulates that the board has to approve each year of the contract individually. The fourth year of the deal begins on July 1.

Sodexo, a private company, runs the cafeteria program in each of the borough’s public schools. The school board pays for the employees, who work for the board.

The projected labor cost for this school year is $880,000. There is no projection yet for the 2019-20 school year.

Under the contract, Sodexo has guaranteed the board a $20,000 influx of cash into the cafeteria program each year as long as it remains under the cap for labor charges. The cap is set by the state. This fiscal year the cap is $903,116. The state hasn’t set the labor cap for the 2019-20 fiscal year yet.

In the 2017-18 fiscal year, Sodexo used the $20,000 to offset the cost of cafeteria equipment, repairs and maintenance.

The renewal came up months before the new fiscal year because the board would have had to go out to bid if it didn’t renew the deal. The board approved the renewal with only board member James Scully voting against it.