EBR Parish School System taps into reserves to balance budget.

The parish school system elects to use 19 million dollars in reserves rather than lay off employees even though enrollment has fallen by 1,100 students.

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Even as neighboring Livingston Parish is planning to cut 40 positions to deal with the loss of students after August's flooding, East Baton Rouge Parish, which lost an even greater percentage of its students, is opting to draw from budget reserves to avoid job cuts.

That will mean once again spending more money than the East Baton Rouge Parish school system is taking in, this time by about $19 million.

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May 27

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Livingston lost about 500 students, a 2.3 percent overall enrollment decline. East Baton Rouge lost about 1,100 students, or a 2.6 percent decline

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And now the school supt. wants to take a high bid from the current maintenance provider to maintain the schools rather than take a big savings from the low bidder.

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Cleveland-based GCA Services Group and Houston-based Jacobs Field Services, the two other finalists, offered bids to do the same work Aramark’s been doing for the district since 2004, and to do the work for much less: $5.3 million less in the case of GCA and $923,000 less in the case of Jacobs for the first year of the contract.

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Over the course of five years, Aramark’s services would be even more costly than its competitors: $29.7 million more than what GCA proposed and $9.7 million more than what Jacobs proposed.

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What's even worse is Aramark cut their bid and is much lower than what they are charging now. It makes you wonder what's going on.

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It’s an even bigger difference considering that Aramark this past year was charging the school system about $28.2 million, which is $3.3 million more than the $24.9 million it’s proposing to do the same work for next year.

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June 4th.

What's odd is Drake has been critical of the current maintenance provider, Aramark, and he's the one who pushed to take bids once their current contract expired. But now he want to give them a five year contract for more even though he was dissatisfied with their work.

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Drake’s decision to renew with Aramark was somewhat surprising. Since taking over as superintendent in June 2015, Drake has often been critical of the company. He immediately found fault with the condition of many school buildings he inherited and demanded more from Aramark.

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Now board members are asking questions as to why the bids were kept from them, why others who scored higher than Ararmark weren't given the work, and why a system tight for money isn't looking for cheaper options.

Apparently Aramark has friends in high places. That's the only good explanation.