The Washington County Career Center is considering bringing in a company to manage its food service program.
Superintendent Dennis Blatt told members of the career center's board at Tuesday's regular meeting that he's been in discussions with AVI Food Systems, which provides service in the Belpre and Marietta City school districts about taking over at the career center as soon as January.
"We want to, if possible, get that lunch program here as soon as we can for our students," he said.
The career center currently manages its own food service program, and Blatt said the center would be able to retain its current employees at their same benefits as it worked with AVI.
"They're (the current employees) excellent at what they do; they're good with our students," he said. "Once we knew we could do that, we then moved forward."
Blatt said working with AVI will allow the center to provide more options for students, such as a salad and fruit bar.
"Typically our lunches, because we have limited resources, the students have limited options at a particular lunch," he said.
The career center's lunch program is currently supporting itself, taking in $159,000 last year, Treasurer Joe Crone said. Blatt said the goal would be to remain in the black while working with AVI.
In other business
However, Combs said the center wants to be careful not to expand too much.
"We don't want to flood the markets," he said. "We want to make sure that there's clinical sites for them and placement opportunities for the future."
The medical programs include surgical technologist, medical assistant, phlebotomy and state-tested nursing assistant.
"We're looking at expanding up north now because that's where a lot of the action in the oil and gas industry is," Combs said.
