Yukon Superintendent: School District Overcharged $425K For Food Services

If things weren't bad enough for schools, now a metro district says they were overcharged by a vendor by more than $425,000. Yukon Schools says they will file a lawsuit to get that money back.

At the center of the soon to be filed lawsuit: Sysco Foods who had the contract to provide food for school lunches for the Yukon district.

“I think there was some unethical practices going on for two years,” said Yukon Superintendent Dr. Jason Simeroth.

Dr. Simeroth says when the company bid the contract they would quote one price for an individual item, but charged more for that same item on the invoice.

“I just get really, really tired of outside companies thinking because they’re a state agency, because they know they’ll get paid they can charge whatever they want.”

Dr. Simeroth says cafeteria managers don't check prices they just make sure they get all the food and the person who oversees all the cafeterias didn't notice the price discrepancy.

“Once a pattern starts and once someone sees that can happen it might lead to someone taking advantage of the situation.”

Dr. Simeroth says a private company actually contacted Yukon Schools offering to look through invoices and purchase orders for inconsistencies and they were the ones who spotted the nearly half a million dollars in alleged overcharges. Once the district did notice what was going on, they offered a settlement to Sysco.

“They declined, I would say respectfully declines, but I don’t think the counter offer was respectful,” said Dr. Simeroth.

And so he says early next week they will file a lawsuit to get all the money back.

“If you think about it $427,000, that’s approximately eight to ten teacher’s salaries.”

Sysco issued the following statement to News 9:

“Sysco is aware of the situation and takes these claims very seriously. While we dispute the allegations, we are and have been engaging with the city on this matter. For nearly 50 years, Sysco has been committed to serving our customers with high-quality products and services to support their needs.”