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Westby Area School District Food Supervisor Marilyn Volden resigned her position effective when her district contract expires on June 30, 2008, sighting difficulties involved with serving two different school districts.

The Westby Area School Board of Education accepted her resignation during its June monthly meeting and at the same time dissolved a joint contract with the Viroqua School District, which involved sharing a single food service supervisor.

The joint food supervisor position was implemented during the 2006-07 school calender year as a money-saving venture for both school districts. Volden split her position between the two school systems, with employee costs being shared by both districts.

Volden, who had been with the Westby district since 2001, implemented many changes to the food service program including providing a wider variety of food choices. During the past seven years Volden took the self-supporting program from the red, into the black.

The joint venture ran into a snag though in 2008 after middle school children organized a boycott of the food service program in Westby, creating a loss of revenue for the self-supporting program and an emotional hardship on many of the food service employees.

Students began boycotting the program in April in an effort to take a stance on what some students believed to be substandard food offerings in the school district. Students in seventh and eighth grade organized a heavy following and began bringing sack lunches to school versus utilizing the in-house hot school lunch program. The boycotting action left the food service department with large quantities of prepared food, which had to be disposed of. The middle school houses 320 students, of which 75 percent normally utilized the school’s hot lunch program.

Administration held a special meeting for middle school parents and students to discuss their concerns regarding the food service program, and to educate parents and students about the program. Over 100 people attended special meeting, but significant damage had already been done to the food service program, both emotional for the employees, as well as financially to the district.

The school district received a letter of intent to dissolve the joint services venture on June 3 from Viroqua, sighting the Viroqua School District’s belief that the food supervisor position requires more minutes in order to operate effectively.

The Westby board agreed with Viroqua and will begin advertising for a new food service program supervisor for the 2008-09 school year. The board is tentatively looking at opening the position up at 30 hours per week.

Other changes were incurred to the food service program when Hanna Traastad (19 years) and Madeline Stalsberg (17 years) also submitted their resignations. Both Traastad and Stalsberg regretfully retired from their positions at Westby Elementary School. Both long-term employees will cherish their memories, but felt it was time to retire.

Other retirements included Westby Elementary School secretary Jeri Johnson after 22 years of service and school bus driver Larry Strangstalien who has logged thousands of miles over the past 14 years.