BY JEFF CHUDZINSKI
North Country This Week

MASSENA — The Massena Central School District is still searching for a food service director.

Peter Bertrand, who worked four-days per week for the district, retired from the position in August.

A recent appointment, Amanda Miller, resigned with an effective date of July 29, officials say.

The resignation of Miller puts the district in a tight spot after officials say they already exhausted the civil service list.

“We went to the Civil Service list and exhausted the Civil Service list, meaning that we didn’t find a candidate from that list that could take the position,” Superintendent Pat Brady said.

School officials did interview a handful of candidates, hiring Miller originally, but are now forced to look at other options for the food service director position

The district is moving away from a contract with St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES for a shared food service director, with officials saying previously that the need for a full-time director forced the Board of Education to break from BOCES and hire a permanent staff member for the district.

BOCES plays a large role in many districts as food service directors become increasingly hard to find, but Massena School officials say the time invested would not have been sufficient to meet the needs of the district.

According to school officials, BOCES would have only been able to offer a food service director three days per week due to the labor shortage. Massena would also have been forced to share the director with another district, which officials say would have not been sufficient for the large district.

Officials took action on 33 personnel situations during a special board meeting on Aug. 1 in a wide range of appointments, extra duty assignments, resignations and substitutes as well.