JAY – The Jay School Committee voted Thursday to proceed with cuts in the financially strapped Food Service Program that provides breakfast and lunch to students and teachers.

Effective Dec. 31, the school bakery will close and four staff members will lose their jobs. Most bread products, including hamburger buns, breadsticks and hoagies will be bought from commercial bakeries.

Superintendent Robert Wall, who first proposed the cuts at the November School Committee meeting, made a presentation Thursday night that further explained why he feels the cuts are necessary.

Wall said the program is losing close to $9,000 every month and will have a projected shortfall of more than $24,000 by the end of 2003. He cited high costs in labor and health insurance and an unfunded liability of around $55,000 that was passed down from previous years as reasons for the financial trouble.

Under its current structure, the program serves a majority of its meals at a net loss. Meal prices are as high as state regulations allow at $2.14, and Wall thought that passing budget cuts, including a reduction in staff work hours, was the only way to bring down the projected deficits. “When you don’t have any money, you can’t spend it,” he told those in attendance. “That’s what we’re looking at.”

Public discussion after Wall’s presentation lasted more than an hour as people expressed their concerns about the changes. Some of those participating in the discussion said that the cuts were too much too soon and suggested there might be some way to curb job cuts and save the bakery. Others felt that nutrition would suffer by shifting to processed bread products that contain preservatives.

Many of those against the cuts suggested that school officials ask the town for help in saving the food program in its current form because it is one of the many things that make Jay a special place to live.

Wall said that he did not think it likely that the town would come up with tens of thousands of dollars in addition to a subsidy that has grown every year since 1996.

He also warned that, even with the changes, the Food Service Program still had a projected deficit of more than $15,000 for the 2003-04 school year. He did not know where the remaining shortfall could be made up.

Before the final vote, committee Chairman Jim Durrell said that it was less difficult for him to vote for cuts in the food program if it meant extracurricular and co-curricular activities could be saved. In response to worries about nutritional value, Durrell said that “we are working with a program that has options for cutting costs by using the same products that are in my home.”

Durrell was joined by Amy Pineau and Clint Brooks in voting to accept the cuts recommended by Wall. Gene Uhuad and Tim Toothaker voted to oppose the cuts.

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