Saving Money and Limiting Options

[Luvteaching]

As a new member of posting to the Bulletin Board, but an avid reader of postings, I want to say how appreciative I am to have such an informative resource available in our county.  I am a mother and teacher of children in the Chatham County School System.  I am disappointed to learn that microwaves are being removed from our school cafeterias and refrigerators are being removed from the classrooms.  Because of busy schedules and lack of planning my children and I have been eating in the cafeteria.  I wish I could say that it is good, but…(as my mom once told me, if you can’t say anything good, just keep quiet.)  I prefer to pack my kids lunch as well as my own.  Often it is leftovers from home, which is quite healthy.  But now how will they heat it up?  I am all about saving the school money; I personally pay for many of my classroom supplies out of pocket.  Did I mention how expensive school lunches are?  I just recently took a look at a day of lunch cost and was surprised to find that my family averaged $12 a day to eat in the cafeteria or $60 a week.  This amount includes no snacks except for bottled water.  I did not realize that if you got more than 2 packs of ketchup you were charged extra.  You know I have a problem watching the little kids being charged and same as the older kids.  Some students walk out of the lunch line with a slice of Pizza and a fruit serving.  Why are our options being limited?  By removing the lunchroom microwaves it is limiting our meal choices, but is this what Chatham County Schools are doing to help the cafeterias recoup their losses?  As a teacher it can be time consuming warming up kids lunch, but I do not mind, as the day is long and if kids are not hungry that makes me happy.  Some of my students who eat breakfast receive a milk and juice.  Often they do not drink both so they ask to save one for later.  I allow them to store it in our classroom refrigerator to have for snack time.  Now what do we do?  No more refrigerators?  Can the teachers have options to be allowed to keep a refrigerator in their room?  I mean we did not have an option when salaries were cut and time taken away?  How much money could the refrigerators cost the county?  Are there not other ways to save money?  I am willing to pay a nominal amount out of pocket to keep my refrigerator, is this possible?   

[Silk_Hope]

My kids don't like the cafeteria food and would rather eat lunch from home. How is removing a microwave going to save money? All the schools want is to sell more food thus more revenue plain and simple.

[munn5]

Mr. Moody was asked at a recent board meeting how much removing small appliances would save, and he said another county of comparable size saved in the 10s of thousands (I think he said $40k, but I'm not sure). $40k is a teacher.

[kdgtn46]

Common sense and politics have never been on the same track!!  The coffee pots will go next!!  Then the drink machine in the teacher's lounge.  Oops - forgot - they get revenue off of that.  Scratch the drink machine - we'll spend the money to keep it - sometimes you have to spend money to make money!!!

[Luvteaching]

Munn5,

I hope that the money that is saved is used for an extra teacher for the students and not a new created position in the county office.  I feel that with raising lunch prices and eliminating microwaves in the cafeteria is setting the tone of "we do not care about you, we just want your money!"  I would like to see a survey go out to the public to ask for ways to save money.  I bet there are teachers out there with great suggestions and they could suggest ways for cutting cost that would not fund just one teacher but probably ten.

[Silk_Hope]

Mr. Moody was asked at a recent board meeting how much removing small appliances would save, and he said another county of comparable size saved in the 10s of thousands (I think he said $40k, but I'm not sure). $40k is a teacher.

If the county already owns the appliances I don't see how they can cost $40K a year.

[belle]

Mr. Moody was asked at a recent board meeting how much removing small appliances would save, and he said another county of comparable size saved in the 10s of thousands (I think he said $40k, but I'm not sure). $40k is a teacher.

If the county already owns the appliances I don't see how they can cost $40K a year.

yes, is that just electricity? most of the teachers I know bring their own appliances.

my kid hated the 20 minutes of high volume noise in line, followed by 5 minutes to eat, I packed her lunch every day, a sandwich, no heating required.

would an ice box (cooler) help?

[mamamia]

The savings is in electricity - and it's not the microwave in the cafeteria that's the issue, it's the mini fridges and microwaves that most teachers have in their classrooms. Fridges and microwaves are energy vampires - they drain energy even when not on.
Let's say the average mini-fridge costs $30/year to run (I'm pulling this out of my hat, not really sure what a mini-fridge costs, but this is a pretty good guess) and 20 teachers in the school have one in their room...that's $600 in energy costs right there. A microwave is less costly - say $10/year on the outside - that's $200 for a school if 20 teachers have them. As for coffee makers...try and pry mine out of my cold dead, hands, is what I say. If I have to be at work at 7:20 a.m. and our cafeteria coffee is super weak and we only have fake creamer available - the $4.00/year the school is saving on my coffee maker is not worth the trade off in my mood! I shall unplug and put it away after use
So a savings of $800 per school or more...it adds up. Probably not to a teaching position, and to be honest, all the TVs, computers, laptop carts, telephones, printers, copiers, etc. that are plugged in are draining far more energy than a mini-fridge in a classroom. I can guarantee you that practically none of that stuff was unplugged for the summer.
m

[Dorable]

How timely.  My technologically challenged teacher mother had me remove both her fridge and her microwave from her classroom because she was no longer allowed to have them.  Then she asked me to try to sell them.  Apparently, there will be a lot of them for sale.

I am also not a fan of school lunches.  Not just because of the added cost but because of the choices.  My kids have been bringing their lunch for years and years.  Simple sandwich, fruit.  Keep an ice pack in the lunchbox and it will be fine.  No fridge, no microwave needed. 

[natvrabit]

Dorable, how much are you asking for the fridge? Size, age also. Where I work is interested in one.

[Silk_Hope]

I can understand the microwaves being removed from the classroom but removing them from the cafeterias does not make sense. My kids like leftovers, beans, meatloaf etc instead of sandwichs everyday.

[munn5]

all the TVs, computers, laptop carts, telephones, printers, copiers, etc. that are plugged in are draining far more energy than a mini-fridge in a classroom. I can guarantee you that practically none of that stuff was unplugged for the summer.
m

The district expects to save $200k in energy through doing things like turning off computers at night, adjusting the standard temperature up (or down) by 2 degrees, and some other strategies they didn't detail.

(There is a lot of information shared at board meetings - I don't think detail on something like this, which was a response to an offhand question, makes it to the minutes. That's a good reason for concerned citizens, not just parents, to attend school board meetings.)

[misstori]

I recall some good discussion about this at the last board meeting.  When presented with the idea, one of the Board members voiced concern that teachers already had their pay cut and stripping them of a coffee machine might only further diminish morale (I'm paraphrasing). 

There was also talk that these small appliances would still be permitted, but in a central location such as a teacher lounge, etc. 

I also don't remember this being a "done" deal.  When staff gets the information from the administrator on site, then I will believe it.

[kimmimom]

I had only heard about removing those items from classrooms, not the cafeteria.  I can understand the waste of electricity if each classroom has a refrig, coffee maker, etc.  So I think a certain number of each should be allowed in each school.  2 microwaves in cafeteries, 1 coffee pot for each hallway (we have K-2, 3-5, and 6-8 halls).  And each teacher workroom in the halls at  PHS has a refrig so those could be left instead of all the individual ones.   Just will need to set up a schedule for coffee drinkers to take turned making coffee-let's say 5 people on one hall like coffee, then each of those could take a day of week to make coffee or maybe each person could do a week at a time.  They could have a "kitty" where people put in x money to buy coffee or each person can contribute 1 bag of coffee at a time and when all is gone, everyone brings a new bag in.  But to have a central coffee locations, a system will have to be in place. 

[Luvteaching]

At the school that I am at our Cafeteria manager said that there will be NO microwaves in the cafeteria next year.  Our Principal asked that all refrigerators and microwaves be removed.  Maybe schools are interrupting information differently.

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