Thanks to our members' efforts at last Wednesday's school board meeting, there was a tremendous amount of interest in the forum -- despite the suspiciously short notice the Board's Chairman provided the community. This week's Reminder News includes a cover story on last week's meeting, which went to press before Tuesday's forum.

The lunch ladies in Council 760's Chapter I67 had been building community support in Windham for months when we turned our full attention to mobilizing for the forum. The leaflet mailed to all our Union's members living in the community over the weekend generated phone calls to friends, family, and neighbors -- as well as members of the school board -- with our message.

When the Chronicle highlighted our efforts in a front-page article in Monday's edition, it was clear we had succeeded in beating back any attempt to stifle public participation at the forum.

Our Chapter members handed-out a new leaflet urging the Board of Ed to vote no on the outsourcing proposal as the community arrived for the forum on Tuesday. Among the crowd that filled the Windham Middle School auditorium were members of Chapter I68 who are the administrative assistants and secretarial professionals working in the district's schools, as well as retired public service workers in Council 400's Chapter 408.

The President of our Chapter representing Ridgefield Public Schools' food service workers came all the way from New Milford for the forum. She delivered a strong statement urging Windham's school board not to contract-out their cafeterias to private vendors.

Members and staff of CEUI/SEIU Local 511 and AFSCME Council 4 who live and work in the community also came to the forum, and several denounced the scheme to outsource the schools' food services. Numerous elected officials were also in the audience, and several took to the floor to oppose the proposal, including Windham Selectman Dawn Niles, Board of Finance member Tom White, and Probate Judge Dennis O'Brien.

Several of our members working in the schools' cafeterias called on the Board to work with them to achieve cost-savings and not to hand Windham's students health and well-being over to profit-motivated private vendors. Chapter President Debbie Dubord made a compelling argument for keeping Windham food services local, instead of passing control to a multi-national corporation.

And despite the slick performance put on by Sodexo, the food services vendor the Board selected as its finalist, parents, other school faculty, and opinion leaders raised real concerns about their troubling labor and service record.

Monday's Chronicle's story lead with the Ethics Board complaint filed that morning urging an investigation of any conflict of interest with Board Chair Ken Folan's employment with another food services distributor. That prompted his decision to recuse himself from the vote that followed Tuesday night's forum, and the six members who participated unanimously rejected contracting-out the schools' food services.

Check out photos from the forum posted online at our new "Photo Gallery" site.

Then members and area residents should take a moment to write a brief letter to the editor of the Willimanic Chronicle or submit a "speak-out" to the Reminder News recognizing the entire community for coming together. The Board should also be congratulated for voting to protecting students' health, preserving good jobs, and keeping public services from being exploited for corporate profit:

• The Chronicle:
  • MAIL: P.O. Box 148, Willimantic, CT 06226
  • FAX: (860) 423-7641
  • EMAIL: letters@thechronicle.com

• Reminder News:
  
  • MAIL: P.O. Box 210, Vernon, CT 06066
  • FAX: (860) 875-2089
  • EMAIL: info@remindernet.com

Then contact me here at the union hall at (800) 894-9479, ext. 129, to let me know when your submission is printed, so we can post it online and share it with the rest of our Union's members.