Lower Merion Schools Spent $47K On Sushi in 2015-16

LOWER MERION, PA — The Lower Merion School District spent $47,918 from November 2015 to August 2016 to serve sushi in its high school cafeterias every Thursday, according to the district's budget documents.

In total, the district turned a $26,000 profit on those sales.

For local attorney Arthur Wolk, who led the recent campaign against the school district's tax increase, these numbers smack of injustice.

"Meanwhile, Lower Merion residents on a fixed income can no longer afford to visit the local sushi bar in Ardmore after their 2016 school tax bill increased by 4.4 percent," Wolk said. "There are some in Lower Merion who believe that its residents should bear any tax burden to provide private school amenities to public school students. However, neither Baldwin nor the Haverford School, both prestigious private schools in Lower Merion, offer sushi on their menus."

Wolk's firm filed a lawsuit in February stating that the 4.4 percent tax increase would violate the Public School Code and the Taxpayer Relief Act (Act 1) of 2006.

In late August, Montgomery County Court ordered Lower Merion to revoke the tax increase for the 2016-17 school year. The school district has appealed that decision. A hearing is set for December.

The district summarily rejected Wolk's claims.

"Mr. Wolk has a fundamental misunderstanding of school meal programs," said Doug Young, a spokesperson with the Lower Merion School District. "Our school cafeterias operate as a business. The food service program is self-sufficient, with revenues directly funding operations. Sushi is not provided for free, nor is it subsidized by taxpayers. It is sold a la carte alongside sandwiches, salads, pizza, stir fry, omelets and other items in the school cafeteria and is a revenue generator. “Sushi Thursdays” are in fact the biggest revenue-generating days for the District’s cafeterias."

Young said that sushi is available in "many other" school districts.

While Lower Merion is consistently ranked among the top school districts in the region, that has come at the cost of taxes that have been raised 40 percent since 2007, according to documents.

"The Lower Merion School District is providing a lesson in inequality, when only 3.5 miles away, 84 percent of students at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia qualify for a free or reduced price lunch," Wolk said. "Rather than setting an example of thrift and discretion for the children of affluence, (Lower Merion) Superintendent Copeland flaunts the fact that Pennsylvania public schools are separate and unequal."

About 11 percent of Lower Merion students are eligible for free or reduced lunches based on economic status, according to the district.

Copeland has previously accused Wolk of attempting to make public education "inherently inferior to private school education."

"We believe that public school students deserve more than the minimum," Young added.

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