By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

BURRILLVILLE — A former Burrillville school lunch program employee -- who two years ago publicly voiced concerns about alleged improprieties ranging from rotten food to questionable use of lunch program funds -- said Thursday the program was the target of a local police investigation prior to the abrupt departure of longtime program director Michelle Selman last week.

School officials are not commenting as to why Selman, a 14-year employee of the School Department, was terminated on Sept. 16, saying only that an “administrative” decision was made to “change the leadership” of the Burrillville Youth Nutrition Program. As a result of that decision, the department has contracted with Aramark to oversee its lunch program.
But former lunch program employee Nancy Hopkins-Schmeltz said Thursday that Selman’s firing came on the heels of a months-long Burrillville police investigation and financial audit of the lunch program, which she said was headed up by Police Chief Bernard E. Gannon and Police Lt. Kevin SanAntonio.
According to Hopkins-Schmeltz, police first met with her and other former employees of the lunch program in summer 2007. That meeting was set up by Town Councilwoman Margaret Dudley, who felt the group had enough compelling evidence to warrant an audit by the police, Hopkins-Schmeltz said.
“No one agreed to sit down with us except for Councilwoman Dudley,” said Hopkins-Schmeltz, who worked for the school lunch program for four years before leaving in December 2006.
Hopkins-Schmeltz said several former “lunch ladies” gave depositions to investigators and that documents they had were also reviewed by the FBI, “which gave us guidance and reviewed all of the documentation and provided backup support,” she said.
Hopkins-Schmeltz said they approached Dudley and the Town Council after their complaints about the lunch program were ignored and later downplayed by schools Supt. Steven Welford. Those complaints were outlined in a letter sent to Welford in 2006, she said.
“On December 7, 2006, a registered letter was sent to Mr. Welford requesting a meeting with him,” Hopkins-Schmeltz said. “Mr. Welford never responded to the letter and never contacted us or met with us. In June of 2007, the lunch ladies distributed the letter to every member of the School Committee hoping they would contact us so that we could present our documents to them. Unfortunately, they had their own agenda, chose to ignore the seriousness of our letter and never met with us.”
Hopkins-Schmeltz says that even though school officials aren’t publicly stating why Selman was terminated, she believes the action was taken after the Police Department wrapped up its investigation and presented the School Committee with the “cold hard facts” of its probe.
“That’s when this ‘sudden change’ was made,” she said. “Mr. Welford publicly stated that it was ‘an administrative decision supported by the School Committee.’ He and the School Committee should not take any credit for the change. They could have done the right thing and told the taxpayers of Burrillville the truth. But, no, they chose to hide behind Mr. Welford’s twisted version of the truth. The School Committee should all be ashamed of themselves for letting the taxpayers of this town down.”
Lt. SanAntonio confirmed Friday that a financial audit of the school lunch program was conducted by police over the course of the past year and that it was completed about two months ago. SanAntonio declined to comment further, referring all questions to Welford.
Even though Selman has not been accused or charged with any wrongdoing, Hopkins-Schmeltz believes there were, in fact, serious “improprieties” relative to lunch program funding. In her view, that’s why the School Department decided to terminate Selman, whose contract ran to June 2009.
“They (police) wouldn’t have gotten involved if this were just a case of burnt chicken nuggets,” she said.
The Burrillville Youth Nutrition Program, which Selman directed, is responsible for developing menus and preparing meals. It has been funded by a self-supporting revolving account.
According to Hopkins-Schmeltz, a former lunch program employee, the program at the high school alone generates a cash flow averaging $800 to $900 a day. District-wide, she said, the lunch program generates anywhere from $800,000 to $1 million a year.
In February, the School Committee appeared concerned about granting Selman a typical two-year extension to her contract. Instead, it approved a one-year contract extension for Selman “to be executed upon the receipt of two satisfactory audit reports,” according to the minutes of that meeting.
As Hopkins-Schmeltz sees it, “Schools Supt. Welford is quoted as saying, ‘past employees letters of concern had nothing to do with this “sudden departure.”’ How would Mr. Welford and the School Committee know this?
“They never met with us to view all the documentation that had been gathered on improprieties ranging from rotten food to questionable use of lunch program funds.”
Selman, whose residential address is unknown, could not be reached for comment. School Committee Chairman Raymond Trinque is not commenting on the matter.
Hopkins-Schmeltz says she and the other “lunch ladies” who voiced concerns about the program as early as 2006 feel vindicated. She said they never wanted to go public with the information; they had hoped to discuss the matter privately with Welford and the School Committee, but those parties refused.
“It is not always easy, or even popular, to stand up and do the right thing,” she said. “Sometimes the wheels of justice turn so slowly that you wonder if it was all worth it. As a taxpayer and parent, it is not too much to ask that our public employees have integrity and be faithful stewards of all the money they have access to.”
When contacted last week, Welford, citing personnel issues, declined to elaborate on what led the district to make the change. He did however comment Friday on Hopkins-Schmeltz’s most recent statements.
In addressing the police investigation, Welford said the local department conducted a forensic audit of the school lunch program, which was wrapped up a couple of months ago. “The case is closed and, according to the findings in the police report, there was no evidence of any criminal activity whatsoever,” Welford said.
As for Hopkins-Schmeltz’s contention that the administration and School Committee ignored concerns voiced about the program, Welford says that’s simply not true.
“Contrary to her statements, the administration and the School Committee took the issues that were raised very seriously,” Welford said..He added that in-house audits of the program were conducted in 2007 and 2008 in addition to an independent audit performed in the winter of 2007 by nutrition expert and registered dietician Mary Jo Cutler, of Cutler Associates of Dedham.
Cutler, who has 30 years of experience in restaurant and food service management, nutrient analysis, recipe development and sanitation and quality control, reviewed Burrillville’s program and called it “well-run.” Cutler, he said, made some recommendations and suggestions, all of which were incorporated into an action plan.
“Mrs. Hopkins-Schmeltz is obviously entitled to her opinions, but to say we didn’t take these issues seriously is not paying attention to the facts,” Welford said. “We took extraordinary steps to address these issues, including having an expert in the field come in and do an independent and impartial audit.”
Welford reiterated that he is prohibited legally from discussing Selman’s departure. “Because this is a personnel issue, I am legally unable to discuss this. And, in fairness to Michelle, I don’t understand why anyone would want to continue talking about this now that this decision has been made.”
As for now, the Burrillville Youth Nutrition Services is under the direction of Aramark, a company that provides a range of food, facility, uniform and other support services to more than 650 K-12 school districts in the United States. The company has a contract with the Rhode Island Department of Education as part of a statewide school food and nutrition services program designed to encourage the consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes.
Welford said Burrillville’s partnership with Aramark Education will provide a quality food service program to the district’s more than 2,000 students. That partnership is in conjunction with the Rhode Island Department of Education statewide food and nutrition services agreement with Aramark,
“This is a new era in terms of the lunch program and we are moving forward and focusing on providing the best food service as possible for our students,” he said. “It is my sincere hope that everyone will join us in looking ahead rather than get mired in the past.”