Finance committee puts brakes on school vending machine

The Medford school district will wait and see what the next food service contract brings before deciding on adding a vending machine that would dispense sandwiches and pre-made meal items.

At their meeting Monday evening before the regular school board meeting, members of the school district’s finance committee reviewed prices on a vending machine that would be stocked with things like sandwiches and other food items. The intent of having the machines would be to relieve congestion in the lunch lines and also allow for students going to sporting or other after school events to get food before they head out. The vending machines would be connected to the student school lunch accounts as well as accept cash or card. Pricing on the meal items would vary depending on the time of day. Students would get a lower price during the school day if the item met the qualifications for a student meal under the federal and state rules. However, the price would jump after school, and if the student already had purchased a lunch that day, meaning the price at lunch could be about $4 and jump to $6 or $8 per meal later in the day. The machine would also be inoperable during much of the school day. Finance director Audra Brooks explained that it would have to be toggled on and off.

The estimated cost of the machine was $18,482 for the first year with a software upkeep cost of $300 per year after that. District administrator Laura Lundy noted the district had a similar machine in place several years ago under the previous food service provider but that it had been removed because it was not being used.

High school principal Jill Lybert was not in favor of bringing a food vending machine. She raised the concern that students would share their lunch codes which would open the door to people purchasing items on others accounts.

“They already know each other’s lunch numbers,” Lybert said, saying that it is caught at the lunch lines now because the students’ picture come up on the screen when a number is entered allowing the staff to check. She gave the example of students being “best friends forever” one week and sharing information and “two weeks later we are no longer friends and I am buying cookies on you.”

Lybert also noted there was no good place in the lunchroom to put the machines with two of the walls being windows, another taken up with heating units and the serving wall. She said you couldn’t have lunch lines crossing each other for people waiting in the serving lines and others using the machine. Suggestions were made about putting it in the hallway by the cafeteria, but it was noted that the serving lines extend down that hallway leaving not much space.

As far as easing congestion and speeding up the time students get their lunches, Lybert said that since the district switched to be cellphone free they have not had issues with students not having time to get through line and eat their lunches. “In the last 10 minutes there are very few with trays in front of them,” Lybert said. Lybert said she did not see a lot of payback on the district having the machine.

“I don’t think it would be a profit making thing for us,” said committee member Dave Fleegel.

Committee chairman Brian Hallgren said for him it is not a question of the money, but that the school staff was not in favor of it. “When I look at the operations people and they are shaking their heads no, unless it is something really wacko I will go with what they are saying,” Hallgren said.

The district currently has about $1.16 million in its food service accounts. State rules restrict what the money can be spent on. A vending machine would be an allowed use of the money. Committee member John Zuleger suggested purchasing the machine and noted they could always sell it and get some of their money back.

After a lengthy discussion, it was decided to hold off on making a decision until after the new food service contract is signed later this spring and the district is able to get input from whichever company gets the contract.

MAES remodel

A proposal to spend about $200,000 from the school district’s capital improvement savings account to convert some of library space at Medford Elementary School into special education classroom space to free up other classroom spaces in the building met with some resistance.

With the move to all day, five day prekindergarten this year, the district is running tight on elementary classroom spaces. Things have worked out for space this year because a smaller kindergarten class this year allowed the number of sections in that grade to reduce freeing up a classroom. However Principal Dan Miller said he anticipated they would need all the sections in the future.

The proposal to use some of the library space had been advanced as the less expensive option compared to an estimated cost of $2.3 million to add two classrooms with bathrooms in them on the end of the kindergarten wing of the elementary school.

Committee members were concerned that the plan to use library space for classrooms is a “band-aid” approach. “If we want to do it right we should wait,” Hallgren said.

Committee members also suggested converting the existing media room as an alternative to taking away library space. They questioned how much the room is used with the amount of technology in each of the classrooms.

“Every kid is carrying a TV around with them,” Hallgren said.

The district has about $3 million in the fund 46 savings account which is set aside for future long term maintenance and improvement projects. The district had previously been unable to use the money in the account until it had been in place for five years.

Fleegel questioned the possibility of converting Stetsonville school into a Prekindergarten and Kindergarten only facility and if there would be enough room to do that there and have the older elementary grades in Medford. Miller said they would need two additional classrooms added to Stetsonville in order to make that work.

Fleegel said he would like to see other options including portable classrooms like have been used in the past in the district when space was tight. Additional options for the school remodel will be brought back to the future meeting. The work would not be completed until this summer.

In other business, committee members:

• Approved renewing the Fund 46 certificates of deposit. The CD rate will go from 5.15% to the renewal rate of 4.31% for a six-month CD. As part of the action, the district will keep about $335,000 out of the CDs in order to pay for some upcoming work.

• Received the preliminary budget showing a potential shortfall of $493,000 in next year’s budget. She noted they were early in the budget cycle and a great deal depended on the state biennial budget and if there is any funding increases that are approved. She also noted that she has included a large increase in insurance costs.