Blog
Oct
Cincinnati Public Schools Implement Grab n’ Go
PCS’ FASTrak POS helps speed the line
“In addition to the Grab n’ Go station, we have two reimbursable meal vending machines, connected to FASTrak, in each of the vending areas of the cafeteria. And this year we added more meal options in another area of the building to reduce overcrowding in the cafeteria, an additional five reimbursable meal vending machines and a PCS Net Cash Machine available to offer students faster service. Due to the success we will be adding more in October.”
– Eric Zacarias, Manager of Food Services
PCS’ FASTrak Integration with Star Food Healthy Express Vending helps reduce congestion in the cafeteria
Jul
Tony Diers
Director of Operations
Last month Tony reached his 20 year anniversary at PCS. Starting out as a Jr. Support Technician, Tony took on any project offered to him, including some very large district installations involving 100’s of schools. Known for his rapid wit and infectious sense of humor, he has always been able to find common ground with a wide range of customers and end users.
As Director of Operations, Tony is responsible for overseeing Front Office POS, Free and Reduced, and Accountability systems design and development, coordination with third party solutions providers, state office interfaces, enrollment, SIS, and financial system interfaces, quality assurance, and high level support services, especially with major city districts. Tony keeps his fingers on the pulse of our industry by participating in many of the User Group meetings throughout the US and meets with PCS users at several conferences throughout the year. His years of experience in the K-12 food and nutrition systems, moving from one technology to the next, are invaluable to the entire staff in managing the software life cycle.
Congratulations to Tony now and for many years to come, from all of us at PCS!
Jul
At the SNAI Conference on June 23rd & 24th, Denise and Judi attended a wonderful dinner and a dance party on a boat. “Iowa knows how to have fun!” Denise commented. Sharing a beautiful sunset with our friends in Iowa only added to the experience. We missed our pals at Ottumwa Community School District, but it was really great to see our friends from Johnston Community School District. JCSD’s Nutrition Services secretary, Cheryl Spring won the $25 Visa gift card.
Denise with JCSD girls
Jul
The PCS Mobile initiative goes into full swing this year with Mobile Apps for TrakNOW and ReportNOW. In addition to the existing PayPAMS Apps for smartphones, ReportNOW Mobile Apps will provide reporting and data visualization for both TrakNOW back office and RightNOW front office information.
The TrakNOW Mobile Apps include:
* Inventory Adjustments
* Physical Inventory Counts
* Pick/Break/Spoil
* Inventory Item Look Ups by name or code
* Bar Code Scan option for the Item Lookup
ReportNOW is a fully responsive website accessible in browsers, on tablets and phones. The ReportNOW Mobile App provides a convenient way to directly access certain popular charts, graphs and reports without navigating via your browser.
Jul
Carrie Frank, Director
Dover-Eyota Public Schools in Minnesota grows some of their own vegetables hydroponically, right next to the serving line in the cafeteria! Carrie Frank, Food and Nutrition Director, has taken the idea of promoting locally grown foods to a new level, quite literally. In May, she purchased a “vertical garden”, a tower type display of greens and plants and placed them close to the students in the cafeteria. This year the vertical garden featured salad greens and strawberries and will expand to herbs and additional assortments of other greens in the coming school year. Carrie’s staff services four of the vertical gardens over a 4-6 week growth cycle, utilizing hydroponics. The students enjoy the opportunity to see the plants growing on the towers.
Jul
Becki and Betty had great time “Deep In The Heart of Texas” June 21-24th at the TASN Annual Conference in beautiful Grapevine, TX. Becki said, “we were able to spend time with old friends and make new ones. Our Texas family is always so helpful in giving us great feedback. We love hearing from you and we can’t wait to see everyone again in Austin next year!
Betty & Becki
Jun
Membership in the Central Kentucky Educational Cooperative (CKEC) provides superintendents and staff of member districts with excellent opportunities to network with colleagues on a monthly basis at board meetings. Each month the members meet to discuss common issues that face their districts and learn about activities to enhance their school systems. Programs are designed with an emphasis on professional learning communities and delivered through scheduled sessions and C.E.O.-type cohorts.
CKEC also offers monthly meetings for professional development coordinators, food service directors, special education directors and other district leaders, to facilitate the continual development, implementation and assessment of activities aimed at enhancing student achievement and staff effectiveness.
CKEC also provides training opportunities for principals, counselors and teacher leaders. Other CKEC committees meet as required to address specific areas, needs or topics.
CKEC’s Mission
The mission of the Central Kentucky Educational Cooperative is to provide its member districts services in training, purchasing, diversity education, professional development, consulting and other specified services required for enhancing member districts’ effectiveness. Through this process, the Cooperative shall remove barriers and provide additional resources for school systems to improve student achievement.
We achieve this mission by providing quality, unique and diversified services as requested by each member system.
For more information please visit the CKEC web site at ckec.org
Jun
Tim Pirolli
Food Service Supervisor
Pemberton Township Schools, NJ
District Snapshot
Number of Schools: 8
PCS customer since: 1995
PCS Products: PayPAMS, Online & Scanned Apps, RIGHTrak, FASTrak, ALANAs and FREDs
Tim Pirolli has been with Pemberton Township Schools for nearly forty years. Beginning his tenure at the district as a Foods Teacher, eighteen years later Tim became the Food Service Supervisor for the district. With over 50 percent free and reduced participation, Tim’s department serves 3000 meals at lunch and 1000 at breakfast across 12 locations covering 62 square miles across central NJ. Meals are also provided at four sites over the summer. Pemberton was first district in New Jersey to begin using scanned apps!
As is the case with any district the goal of the program is to offer nutritious meals and to provide fast paced service and accountability. And Tim and his staff do just that. We asked Tim what he likes most about PCS, to which he responded, “There are many point of sale companies with many products but PCS has a proven track record of service. In fact, we have NEVER had an issue that PCS Support didn’t quickly resolve. They helped with every audit!”
Jun
DJ Segraves
Regional Sales Director
DJ works the Alabama, Colorado and Utah territories and is still involved from time to time with our Florida Customers. Recently, 
DJ played an instrumental role in coordinating between the the Alabama State DOE and PCS Support to standardize district student information systems interfaces with RIGHTrak and RightNOW central office software.
This past month DJ added 5 new districts to the PCS family and has added to his own family! Congratulations DJ and Tara on the birth of their baby girl! Melody Lynn was born April 14, 2015 (8lbs 11oz and 21 inches).
When DJ isn’t working or building a larger family you can find him on the ski slopes. DJ travels to Colorado to do his snowboarding and you are likely to find him on TV in the spring helping out one of many contests that include, the Burton US Open, RedBull Double Pipe and even X Games.
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