Olsen Announces August Date For Proposed New Food Safety Standards

After meeting with a group of concerned parents regarding food safety in Westford’s schools a week earlier, Westford School superintendent Bill Olsen reported to the School Committee on Monday night what he hopes will be the next steps in creating a new set of operating procedures for the district’s food safety standards.

Following revelations of unsanitary conditions earlier in the year at the district’s food storage facility known as “the Barn,” diminished trust from local parents in the district’s food safety protocols created the need for the development of the new standards between himself, food services director Patti Donahue and members of the Westford Board of Health.

Olsen stated to the committee that the new guidelines would be ready to present on Aug. 15 in time to potentially be approved for the 2011-2012 school year.  

The superintendent hoped that the new operating procedures could be what he called a model for other districts in the state.

While all members of the board were generally in support of the opinion that the problem was grave enough to be considered something in need of serious change, as well as supporting Olsen’s decision to avoid the disciplinary actions that some parents, such as those that came before Olsen a week earlier had desired, viewpoints varied slightly in other areas.

Some on the committee, such as Arthur Benoit, saw the incident as a problem that should be spread out across a wider range than just Donahue, who is currently on medical leave due to health issues.

“There was multiple levels of failure. The Board of Health didn’t inspect the barn, I feel like disciplining Patti directly would be like singling out one person for the fall,” said Benoit. “Yes, there should have been more oversight, but the oversight that was there was from the top down, the entire staff should have been doing it, singling out Patti doesn’t deal with the problem.”

Others, such as School Committee member Ken Teal, believed that the crisis brought the issue to the forefront, helping create a current level of scrutiny on food safety that was unprecedented in Westford history and would ultimately provide a positive outcome by spurring the district to create reforms, such as the ones Olsen has proposed for August.

However, not everyone in attendance at the meeting shared the same feelings as those on the board.

The only parent in the audience to speak on the issue, Sean Seyffert of Chippewa Road, was pleased that new procedures were being put into place. Still, Seyffert was concerned about an apparent status quo that had allowed the situation at The Barn to occur had been in place for numerous years, feeling that mentality lied at the root of the problem.

“I wasn’t raising the issue of The Barn, because that obviously has been taken care of, but some of the other issues that have come to light; there doesn’t seem to be a lot being done in the public eye to address these issues,” said Seyffert, who also told the board that he had stopped his children from buying school lunches during the rise of the food safety concerns. “Perception is reality, and yes, the reality is that The Barn has been taken care of, but there’s still a perception that other things are still going on.”

School Committee Chairman David Keele told Seyffert that he had spent an inordinate amount of time with Olsen and staff members over the issue, and offered to directly address the questions of any concerned parents.

However, Keele also urged patience for the delivery of the new proposed guidelines in August and tried to remind anyone watching the meeting that buying school lunches are not a mandatory activity for Westford students.

“I do want to say to the public respectfully, if there is a concern, you don’t have to buy lunch,” said Keele, who noted that he enjoys making food for his children, who call him "the Breakfast Captain." “I don’t say that lightly, I know pizza day is a big day, but there are options.”

While the proposed new operating procedures still have several months of deliberations, preliminary suggestions from the committee discussed included self-audits, food management software and an automation system for district food services, although the $80,000-100,000 price tag suggested for the whole district by Director of School Finance Kathleen Auth did chill that notion somewhat.

However, regardless of what initiatives may be involved in the final plan, Olsen hopes that the new policies proposed in August can help renew confidence in district food safety and close a chapter in Westford school history.

“(The new procedures) absolutely will be good or excellent,” he said. “There is no compromising this time.”