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GRAND JURY INVESTIGATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: The petition to open a Grand Jury investigation of the Berkeley School’s Food and Nutrition Services Program (FNS) is absurd. As a school food director of 27 years (eight with Berkeley Unified) I have a firm understanding of both school and food services financial management and program regulations. 

The continuing deficits are based on school board actions, not illegalities or mismanagement. Whether the three years of red ink is $1.1 or $2.4 million, some perspective as to the cause of this deficit is needed. 

In the 1950s Berkeley enacted a Needy Meal Over-ride Tax adding supplemental funding for school food services based on the number of free and reduced price meals served to students. With the school finance reform of the late 1970s this funding stream was diverted to Sacramento for apportionment back to the district.  

Unfortunately this funding change came without a guarantee that the money would be used to feed children. Though this roughly $500,000 a year in revenue is still based on the number of subsidized meals served, the recommendation from the Fiscal Crisis Management Advisory Team (FCMAT) to maintain these revenues in the General Fund of the district was adopted by the Board of Education in 2002.  

The purchase of new equipment and repairs to facilities are not allowable expenditures under the National School Lunch Act. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent by the district for capital outlay expenses for the cafeterias, particularly at Berkeley High School. Some of these expenditures were to be covered by the insurance settlement from the Berkeley High fire. Under the watchful eyes of FCMAT, these dollars were diverted to cover over-expenditures by the General Fund even though the Board was advised that it was an improper use of Food Service funds. 

Measure BB, the Maintenance Assessment Tax, specifically excluded only one BUSD program, Food and Nutrition Services (FNS). Now, FNS pays for maintenance that the citizens of Berkeley have generously provided for all other district programs.  

Some board policies, regardless of merit, have had a negative fiscal impact on FNS. With funding based on number of meals served, the staffing of small schools creates very high labor costs for the program. The policy that prohibits the district from purchasing milk from dairies where cows have received Bovine Growth Hormone has created a situation where two of the four major milk suppliers in the area are excluded from bidding for the district milk business. I estimate that this lack of competitive bidding alone adds over $25,000 a year in food costs. 

We can have anything we are willing to pay for. The district can serve scratch-cooked, organic meals if funding can be found. Likewise we can reduce class size with additional funding.  

I have been very impressed by the new international food courts at Willard and Longfellow middle schools. It is not Chez Pannise but with a budgeted food cost of less than $1 a meal, FNS has demonstrated a willingness and ability to make positive changes. I await the opening of the new food court at Berkeley High. 

Grand Jury probes should be retained only for the purpose of investigating illegal activities. I have not heard of allegations of grand theft or embezzlement. If you don’t like the policies of the Board of Education you can vote them out. Time, money and energy spent on frivolous investigations is better spent on improving the educational opportunities for the children of Berkeley. 

Dan F. Lee