Rock Falls HS cafeteria staff asks for help, pay raise

ROCK FALLS — Five members of the cafeteria staff and a library teaching assistant who pitches in on the lunch line appealed for higher pay and more hiring during Wednesday’s meeting of the Rock Falls High School board of education.

“The other day we were short, just three in the department,” said Rhonda Neal, food services supervisor. “Three hundred and fifty kids through the line, two different lunch lines, with just the three of us.”

Several other members of the cafeteria staff also spoke during the public comments section of the meeting.

Kimberly Bellows, who said she’s been on the line for 22 years, said: “I’ve come to the board to ask for a raise. … It just feels nobody cares about the kitchen.”

The feeling of being under appreciated was repeated by each of the speakers.

In an interview outside the board meeting, Neal said: “We’re asking for better pay and a little bit of help when needed. We feel that we’re not getting that.”

The cafeteria staff has five part-time workers. Neal says the department needs seven to be fully staffed. It’s been three years — pre-COVID-19 — since they’ve had those numbers.

She said they recently lost a full-time cook, who took another position at the high school.

“The idea is that now I have to hurry and find somebody,” Neal said.

Dustin Ferguson, is a teaching aide who used to work in the kitchen, said he helps out when he can. “People should go down to help them,” he said. He also spoke in support of the cafeteria workers to the board.

Patrick Anderson, who is president of the teachers’ union, voiced support for the cafeteria workers. The teachers’ union does not represent the cafeteria staff, however.

Bryan Berogan, facilities director, volunteered during his report that his maintenance staff is also shorthanded by one. He said he’s made three hires that took other jobs before they’d completed their onboarding.

“Bryan nailed a lot of it,” said Merle Gaulrapp, president of the board. “We’re having trouble getting help, period,” he said.

Gaulrapp said he is interested in finding a solution.

Superintendent Ron McCord said the kitchen workers first submitted their requests on Friday. “We really haven’t had time to talk,” he said. “I’ve talked to the finance committee. It’s a matter of finding just something that’ll work. It’s not that they aren’t appreciated. They very much are. But it’s a part-time minimum wage job and it always has been.”

Minimum wage pay, which as of January, is a state-mandated $12 per hour.

McCord then spoke about the fact that competition for workers has become an issue, even in education.

“We’re going to try to find something,” McCord added. “The times right now with everything that’s going on employment-wise, and what everyone has to offer for people to stay, is trickling down everywhere. Schools are no different. We’re getting hit with this massive increase in employment costs and demands, and it’s something we have to deal with and work with them, trying to find something that works.”