Nutrition workers in the Brandywine School District are pushing back against what they say is an unfair offer from district officials as their contract expires at the end of the month.
District officials want to postpone a new contract for another year, and offered the members of the Brandywine School Nutrition Association a small raise. Speaking to the Brandywine Board of Education, BSNA President Bonnie Hayes said that wasn’t good enough.
“First, they low-balled us with a 5 cent per hour increase,” she told board members. “After we refused to put their insulting offer to vote, they proposed 10 cents.”
Even doubling the raise amount to 10 cents is not comparable to what nutrition workers in other districts have gotten, she added.
“It's less than half of what Colonial food service workers just agreed to, and it's less than one-third of what food service workers in Appoquinimink got,” she said.
Overall, she told board members, the proposed raise would make very little difference in difficult economic times.
“Ten cents an hour works out to an extra 3 to $7 per paycheck,” Hayes said. “That doesn't even cover the increased cost of gas, work, never mind groceries, rent, or other high property tax increases we're all paying here in the district.”
She also said the district plans to cut back on hours, and the result will be a decrease in service.
“That might help your bean counters, but here in the real world, that makes serving safe, healthy meals to more than 10,000 students every day virtually impossible,” Hayes told board members.
Board members did not address Hayes’s comments.
In a separate measure, the Board of Education approved salary increases for some district staff not represented by a union, including district office staff and school constables.
