The Great Bend USD 428 Board of Education voted 6-1 on Wednesday to approve a 12-month contract to provide meals to Bright Beginnings Daycare. Board members noted that the new daycare center will pay for the service and USD 428 won’t lose any money.

Board member Chad Burroughs voted against approving the contract.

Great Bend Economic Development Inc.’s Advancing Barton County Childcare (ABCC) opened Bright Beginnings, with plans for future daycare centers in other Barton County communities. GBED also plans to build a $4 million IGNITE Innovation Center and one goal for that facility is to expand the number of licensed childcare slots.

Wednesday’s meeting was called to wrap up the school district’s fiscal year but there were several items on the agenda. Board President Jacquie Disque noted that discussion of a contract with Bright Beginnings began at the last board meeting. She said she asked Food Service Director Kristy Alvord to provide more information. The district provided Bright Beginnings with meals for 10 students, five days a week, during the summer school session that ends on Friday. USD 428 fed 290 meals a day at five elementary schools this month. The district will continue to provide meals in July, but only at three attendance centers and at Bright Beginnings.

Disque said that after discussion, the board would need to choose one of three options for future service to Bright Beginnings: to reject the contract, accept a contract for six months, or accept a contract for 12 months.

Sara Williams was the first to weigh in. “There are a lot of contracts that our district deals with,” she said. “A lot of other groups use our facilities and I don’t understand why this is coming to the board. ... I think it’s micromanaging and slows down business.”

“There’s no extra cost to us,” board member Randy Wetzel said. “Our job is to take care of our kids in the community, and that’s what we’re doing. They’re going to be in our district at some point.”

Meal delivery to Bright Beginnings is “right on their route” to other schools, Wetzel added.

Karen Lindberg said, “We rely on our community to support us as well – our kids are going out, selling Panther Cards (and so on). Sometimes we’re called to serve our community back, and I feel like this is just one of those times.”

“All right, I’m going to be the bad guy,” Burroughs said. He said he watched a video that outlines the master plan for daycares. His understanding is that the Innovation Center that is still in the design phase will serve as a central kitchen to the ABCC facilities in multiple communities.

“They are still in the design phase and most of us know that the procurement time on getting commercial equipment is not very quick, so it’s a year-plus,” he said. “We’re giving them 10 meals a day and here next month we’re not going to be providing meals at two of our locations. ... I just don’t want us to turn into a DoorDash.”

Other board members stressed that the fee Bright Beginnings will pay will more than cover any cost to the district.

“To me, it’s never been about the money,” Burroughs said. “We can charge $20 a meal; it’s not about the money. It’s about the principle of the thing, because we’re going to look bad either way now. If we deny this contract we’re going to be the bad guys but then if we approve this and the next daycare comes in and says, ‘Hey, we’d like for you to do it,’ and we don’t do it, then public opinion is we’re playing favorites.”

Burroughs said he’d heard from constituents who were not in favor of the service. Wetzel said he’d heard just the opposite.

“I talked to people and they said, ‘Why not? We’re taking care of kids.’ And that’s our bottom line,” Wetzel said. “Our job is to take care of kids as a community and that’s what we’re doing in this case.”

He also said he does not expect requests for food service to balloon up from other daycares. “I don’t see this happening. And if it does, we’ll deal with it when it happens.”

Board member Aaron Emerson said he understood Burroughs’ point was that it is not about the money but about being respectful to taxpayers. The taxpayers need to know, “We’re not giving anybody anything,” he said. 

“That’s kind of how I felt,” board member Deanna Essmiller said, adding taxpayers need to understand that their tax dollars aren’t paying for these meals.