AURORA, Colorado – The law says taxpayers have a responsibility to finance K-12 education for all children.  It does not say they have a responsibility to provide public school employees and students with a constant supply of expensive restaurant food.

Someone should remind officials at the Aurora, Colorado school district of that fact.

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In fiscal 2016-17, while school officials were trying to figure out how to eliminate a $31 million budget deficit, the district was busy spending tons of money on restaurant food, caterers and grocery stores.

The Aurora district spent an incredible $334,872.11 on fast food and other restaurant food that year, according to documents provided by the district through a public information request. That money was spent in 2,605 separate transactions, which comes out to an average of $128.50 per transaction.

The district also spent $198,534.06 at “grocery stores, supermarkets” and “miscellaneous food stores” in 2,872 transactions, for an average of $69.10 per purchase.

The school also rang up 116 transactions with various caterers for a total of $44,934.47, 16 transactions at “candy, mint and confectionery stores” for $9,994.32, and 35 transactions at various bakeries for $3,582.09.

That means the Aurora school district spent a total of $591,917.05 on outside food purchases – beyond its normal school food service program – in 2016-17. How many teachers could be employed for that amount of money?

The enormous restaurant tab included a lot of money spent at obviously favored establishments.

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Tops on the list was Atlanta Bread, where the district had 113 purchases for a total of $20,023.10. That averages out to about $177 per purchase.

Then there was Blackjack Pizza, where the district had 159 purchases totaling $16,609,20, for an average of about $104 per transaction. School personnel also clearly favored Jason’s Deli, where they spent $16,150.45 in 60 transactions, for an average of about $269 per purchase.

Other popular food destinations included Panera Bread ($11,306.44), Little Caesars ($9,882.42), Skate City ($9,889.20), Sabor Mexican Grill ($9,205.78), Domino’s Pizza ($8,367.35), Famous Dave’s ($6,275.17), Chick-Fil-A ($6,728.48), and Senor Miguels ($6,189.50).

The list goes on and on.

Our guess is that the taxpayers of the Aurora school district have no idea that this kind of spending has been going on, at a time when the school district has been struggling to make financial ends meet.

Hopefully this news will find them, and they will play closer attention to how school officials are squandering precious resources.