Beef recall has impact on school budget

The recent and widely-publicized beef recall has had an impact on the local school system budget, although it's hoped that eventually, the school system will be reimbursed for its costs.

An increase in food costs and an increase in student population required a $502,500 amendment to the school's child nutrition budget, which was approved Thursday night by Bedford County Board of Education. The school system feeds lunch to 5,800 children a day, according to supervisor Janet Clarkson, and also feeds breakfast to many children.

Clarkson said it's likely that school lunch prices will need to be increased for the 2008-2009 school year. Currently, full price school lunches range from $1.60 to $1.85 depending on grade level.

Last month, a California company was forced to recall 143 million pounds of beef -- nearly 40 million of it targeted for school lunch programs -- after undercover video revealed unsafe practices.

When the recall hit, some of the affected beef -- received by the county as part of a U.S. Department of Agriculture commodities program -- had already been processed by Volunteer State Cooperative (VOLCO), a school food service cooperative of which Bedford County is a member. None of it was served to any Bedford County student, officials said Thursday night, but when it was recalled the county was out the processing cost, and it also had to replace the beef, by buying from normal commercial vendors at a much higher price than is offered under the commodities program. The federal government is promising some sort of reimbursement, but it's not clear when that will happen; it could be months or years away.

Other budget amendments approved Thursday night covered the General Purpose School Fund and the School Federal Projects Fund. The General Purpose School Fund amendment called for $192,507 in additional spending, partially offset by $150,507 in new revenue, so that the fund balance was decreased by $42,000.

In other discussion Thursday night:

* Transportation supervisor Jimmy Williams gave the board an overview of his department, which covers almost 4,000 road miles a day and transports 3,686 students.

Board member Dixie Parker asked Williams to express the board's gratitude to the county's bus drivers for their work.

* Teacher tenure recommendations were approved.

* The board heard reports from high school students who attended SCOPE (Student Congress on Policies in Education), a mock school board exercise sponsored each year by Tennessee School Boards Association (TSBA). The program was held earlier this month in Nashville. Participants were Bryan Hayes, Lacey Landers, Nathan Mangrum, Kelci Haman, Fatima Murillo and Chelsea Moon. They were accompanied by school board members Dixie Parker, Amy Martin and Diane Neeley. (Martin is also president of TSBA.)

* The board approved a district-wide evaluation process for Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accreditation.