Trustees debate food-service procurement as students and staff complain about quality; district says state prototype bid required vendor selection by price

Trustees and members of the public pressed the Mount Vernon board on June 3 over persistent complaints about school food quality and service as district staff explained the procurement process for food-service management.

Several trustees and speakers said complaints about food quality, late lunches and staff turnover remain widespread. Trustee de Grandpre and others said a petition from Denzel Washington School of the Arts asked the district to retain current food staff. One trustee said she was holding roughly 78 letters from students documenting poor food service.

District staff responded that two separate procurement tracks were used: an RFP to hire a food-services consultant and an open invitation to bid for a food-service management company. “An RFP is a request for proposal,” a district administrator explained. “Whereas an open invitation to bid ... New York is one of two states in the country that it goes by the lowest bidder.” The administrator said bids are evaluated for responsiveness and that an unresponsive bid may be skipped in favor of the next qualified bidder.

The administrator also said the district used the New York State prototype bid for food-service management but modified it: the district sought material changes to portion size, quality and operational oversight and ran those changes through the state so the contract would carry the new requirements. “This is the first time this district has ever decided to make those material changes to the state's prototype bid,” the administrator said, adding that the intent was to “up the ante” so quality standards accompany the winning vendor.

Trustees debated publicly whether the district could legally choose a bidder other than the lowest if the bid met state requirements. The administrator said that while New York’s procurement law favors the lowest responsive bid, a bid can be judged unresponsive for a variety of reasons, allowing the district to consider the next bidder in line. Some questions on procurement and vendor performance were deferred to executive session, where the board planned to discuss bids and legal issues related to procurement.

Public commenters described problems inside schools: food-service workers sent to fill in at schools were described as abrupt with students, lunches were sometimes late and long lines shortened students’ eating time. One trustee who visited a second-grade science expo also noted staff shortages affecting school operations. The district said it had retained a consultant to advise on the food-service procurement and that the RFP and bid processes were conducted according to protocol.

No contract award was announced at the meeting. The board scheduled executive-session discussion on bids and legal advice later in the agenda.