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TEST TAKERS VYING FOR CAFETERIA MANAGER JOB
Published on October 12, 2001
Author: ***MARGARET HAMMERSLEY - News Staff Reporter
© The Buffalo News Inc.
Twenty-one applicants, who believe they know their way around a kitchen, are signed up to take the civil service test for cafeteria manager of the Lackawanna School District at 9 a.m. Saturday in the Senior Citizens Center, 420 Martin Road.
Among them is Frank Gable, who has held the post on a provisional basis for a year. Gable friend John Makeyenko, now School Board president, tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Lackawanna Civil Service Commission to eliminate the test and allow the position to be appointive.
Makeyenko, also chairman of the Lackawanna Democratic Committee, said that in about three months, Civil Service will provide a list of the test takers, ranked by their test scores. The board will offer the job to one of the top three.
"Who knows who is going to be on the list in the top three?" said Makeyenko.
On a related front, a pending shortfall in the school lunch program will go to the voters in a referendum Nov. 20, with the School Board asking for the right to transfer $60,000. The proposition appears on the same ballot as a request for an additional $800,000 bond for the planned elementary school.
Former School Board member Diane Kozak questions whether part of the school lunch shortage results from the 1999 appointment of Gable as head cook.
"Part of the $60,000 is a $10,000 shortfall that came when Makeyenko's board majority gave the head cook job to Frank Gable," she said.
Gable lost the head cook job when arbitrator James R. McDonnell ruled that Sandra Mach should receive it. McDonnell awarded back pay to Mach, a sum she recollects as about $10,000.
The decision handed down by McDonnell expressed disapproval of Makeyenko's attempt to help Gable.
"This arbitrator finds that John Makeyenko's interference in the hiring process not only violates the contract but puts grave doubts on his motives," McDonnell said.
Gable moved up when the better job of cafeteria manager opened up last year, and he was appointed provisionally.
Kozak questions whether more effective food service management could have avoided the $60,000 shortfall. School District Senior Accountant Sameh Masry said a surplus that carried the program for several years now is running out.
Masry said the school lunch program took in revenues of $840,681 last yearbut cost $913,141. He said the cost figure includes all salaries and benefits. Seeking a transfer now will help him hold the line on next year's school budget, Masry said.
"It is done now so I do not have to increase next year's budget," he said.
Masry and Makeyenko say they do not know whether the payment to Mach is reflected in the shortfall.
Besides the $60,000 transfer, the board referendum seeks the right to sell $800,000 in bonds to meet the additional costs on what was originally planned as a new $13.1 million school. General contractor bids came in $900,000 above estimates, Masry said.
Action on the $800,000 will determine whether the new building includes an auditorium, Makeyenko said.
e-mail: mhammersley@buffnews.com
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