Saugus food services serves up $37G deficit

SAUGUS – School Committee member Rick Doucette got a little hot under the collar Thursday after learning that what he thought was a $500 surplus was actually a $37,408 deficit.”As chairman of the food services subcommittee I’m extremely angry,” he said. “I was presented with documents that had a $500 surplus and I find out there is actually a $37,000 deficit,” he said evenly. “We made decisions based on the $500 figure.”Doucette said it appears a bill from June of 2008 was never paid and Chartwells was in the dark as well because it was never posted against the food service revolving account.Superintendent Richard Langlois said Chartwells officials were just as stunned by the news.It was Business Manager Sam Rippin, who took over the position earlier this month, who spotted the miscalculation.”Chartwells believes there was a balance, so did the committee, so did the superintendent,” Rippin said. “But when I actually looked at the revolving account it was a bill from June of 2008 that wasn’t factored into the 2008 revolving account.”The committee knew when it negotiated a new contract with Chartwells that there had been a $35,245 deficit that was attributed to fewer kids actually purchasing lunches and snacks. Chartwells agreed to include a break even clause in the new contract so should the district come up short in 2010 Chartwells has to at best make the department whole.And Langlois said the good news is the account is whole now.”We made everything whole so if there is a failure this year we at least started whole,” he said. “Hopefully we will operate in the black.”Rippin said he is confident the food service program will do better this year. A point of sales payment program has been instituted and with all-day kindergarten on tap for the new school year, Rippin said more students would be participating.”With the new program, additional focus certainly by me on the operation and a redoubling of efforts by Chartwells we hope it will improve,” Rippin said.Langlois said the real concern over the deficit was the impact it had on other areas. The money used to offset the deficit could have been spent on students but instead nearly $72,000 plus another $20,000 to bail out the Kid’s Come First program was spent on deficits.”We weren’t blindsided by the $30,000 but we didn’t expect the whole ($72,000),” Langlois said.