Caroline Cioffi, Editor-in-chief
@cciofficourant
When, in early August, a scandal involving two cafeteria employees came to light, New Canaan High School was featured in news outlets across the country and even made it to the cover of the New York Post. According to CNN, the pair of lunch ladies stole almost 500,000 dollars from the NCHS cafeteria over the course of four years.
Since the incident, the NCHS administrators have implemented a variety of changes to their accounting systems. “The changes we’ve made have been around the controls of the cafeteria systems—everything that happens from the exchange of money to where the money goes and who’s responsible for it,” said Bryan Luizzi, the New Canaan Superintendent of Schools.
Having begun his career as a department manager at Barnes and Noble, Dr. Luizzi compares the cafeteria systems to those used in the retail market. “What we’ve done is we’ve conformed to what the best practices are in the retail space,” said Dr. Luizzi. “We’ve put in place what’s called a blind close. The person who’s running the cash register is in charge of counting the money at the end of the day, but they’re blind to see how much there’s supposed to be.”
Though some cameras were already in place, additional cameras have been implemented in the cafeteria. “The new cameras record each of the point-of-sale locations,” Dr. Luizzi said. “We have about 40 or 45 days of recorded history at any given time so that, if something comes up, we can take a look at it.”
In addition to the changes to the cafeteria system, Michelle Santelli, the Director of Food Services, conducted a point-of-sale (POS) training session. “The training was really informative,” Ms. Santelli said. “We trained the staff that if there’s anything alarming–like a $17 charge–to let us know right away so that we can make sure we’re catching anything strange in advance.”
In order to ensure that these trainings have been effective, Dr. Luizzi will conduct surprise audits in each of the NCPS cafeterias. “What will happen is that accountants and sometimes Dr. Keating, who is the Director of Finance and Operations, will go to a cafeteria unannounced,” Dr. Luizzi said. “We’ll do whatever we have to do to make sure that we’re following procedures properly.”
In terms of addressing the scandal itself, an audit is currently being done to ensure that there were no other errors in the cafeteria systems. “We have an auditor who’s looking at the debit system we use and looking back at the history of it,” Dr. Luizzi said. “It’s a high level look to see if there’s any indication that we need to do a further study. And if there is then we’ll do it.”
In regards to the stolen money, the school filed an insurance claim. “We did receive back almost 500,000 dollars from our insurance company,” Dr. Luizzi said. “Once the legal issues are sorted out, we will be able to reinvest the money back into the program.”
“If you think about it, the school cafeterias are the most successful restaurants in town,” Dr. Luizzi remarked. “We serve thousands of meals every day and we’re proud of it! So we should reinvest in that.”
Dr. Luizzi expressed his gratitude towards the employees who helped uncover the issue. “This is something that had been going on for a long time,” Dr. Luizzi said. “It’s really thanks to the good work of some of the people I’ve mentioned—Dr. Keating, Ms. Santelli, and some others—that we started to realize that something wasn’t right. So I’d like to thank them.”
