School division permitted to continue $250K motor fuel program contract

The Warren County School Board voted unanimously to permit Warren County Public Schools (WCPS) to continue purchasing fuel through the Virginia State Motor Fuel Program.
“We have been successfully used the Virginia state motor fuel program for our fuel services and wish to continue to do so,” said WCPS Transportation Director Aaron Mitchell during the board’s Tuesday, Nov. 16 meeting and work session.

The $250,000 contract is with Mansfield Oil Co., which signed a modified contract with the Commonwealth of Virginia on October 1, according to Mitchell, who noted that the flexibility of the fueling station and the transparency of cost and billing were a few examples of why the service benefits WCPS.

WCPS Transportation Director Aaron Mitchell explains the benefits of working with Mansfield Oil Company to the School Board.

School Board Vice-Chair Catherine Bower and members James Wells, Kristen Pence, Ralph Rinaldi, and Melanie Salins voted to approve the request.

During the board’s work session portion of its meeting, several items were up for discussion but not for action, including an increase in adult meal prices.

WCPS Food Service Coordinator Nickole Kinsey explained that the school division needs to increase its prices for adult meals to meet the 2021-2022 Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) minimum adult price requirement.

VDOE requires that School Food Authorities ensure that federal reimbursement, children’s payments, and other nonprofit food service revenues do not subsidize program meals served to adults, meaning that adult meal prices must be high enough in price to compensate for the total paid reimbursement, Kinsey said.

The paid reimbursement and commodity rates change each school year, so adult meal prices may change each year, as well, she said.

Currently, WCPS adult meal prices are $1.75 for breakfast and $3.00 for lunch. The new compliant price increase proposal will be $2.30 for the adult breakfast and $3.85 for an adult lunch.

“We’re out of compliance with our pricing, so that’s why we’re revisiting this,” said Kinsey, noting that the new prices would start at the beginning of 2022 following the holiday break.

School Board member Wells asked if there was a way to mitigate the 85 cents increase in adult meals for staff “because they’ve had a rough couple of years. Can we absorb the increase in some way?” He said he was interested “in some potential options to help staff out.”

WCPS Superintendent Christopher Ballenger said schools can pay that bill if they want but would have to have a line item in the Warren County general fund going forward to pay into the child nutrition fund to cover the increase. He plans to investigate Wells’ suggestion further.

Among other work session discussions, the School Board:

• Learned that the WCPS Maintenance Department is currently working through school safety audits, which are required to ensure WCPS facilities are safe. WCPS Assistant Superintendent for Administration George “Buck” Smith said the audits focus on areas such as the physical security of school buildings, crisis management planning, emergency medical response, fire safety, and visitor safety management, among others. All assessments and inspections will be completed by mid-December, he said.

• Considered a WCPS plan to participate in the Virginia School Screening Testing for Assurance (ViSSTA) program, which provides free testing vendors, supplies, and staffing to support an end-to-end COVID-19 testing experience with the goal of maximizing resources available to schools to navigate full in-person instruction and minimizing added responsibilities of the existing school staff.

WCPS Director of Special Services Michael Hirsch told board members that the Virginia Department of Health program would allow WCPS to hire employees to support the division’s ongoing COVID-19 mitigation strategies, including a COVID Response Coordinator and two Clinical Support Specialists. The additional supports would be deployed to implement voluntary pool screening, support current mitigation strategies, support building level administrators and school nurses, and the division coordination of its COVID response said Hirsch.

WCPS Director of Special Services Michael Hirsch tells board members about the ViSSTA program.

• Heard the second reading of School Board Policy BDDH/KD Public Participation at School Board Meetings from Superintendent Ballenger. At the first reading, which was held at the board’s November 3 regular meeting, the School Board reviewed the policy and requested modifications: to insert the phrase “with the approval of the majority of the board” to the two places where the board chair has the discretion to limit public presentations; and that the requirement of a speaker to verbally state their address be removed and instead require that a speaker state whether he or she is a county resident, parent of a WCPS student, and/or an employee of the school division.

• Heard the second reading of the WCPS Comprehensive Long-Range Plan 2021-2026 from Ballenger, who said it was developed by teachers, administrators, School Board members, and input from the community. The goals for 2021-2026 include ensuring that all schools will be accredited on an annual basis as defined by the Virginia SOLs; WCPS will employ properly credentialed teachers, administrators, and staff., and the School Board will strive to provide competitive compensation for all personnel; and all students and staff will be afforded a safe and engaging learning environment that promotes healthy behaviors and positive relationships for everyone every day, among other goals. Action on the plan will be taken by the School Board at its next meeting in December.