Last night, Spotsylvania cafeteria workers spent 1 1/2 hours with School Board members Ray Lora and Amanda Blalock inside the library of Spotsylvania Middle School.

They shared their reactions to suggestions that their jobs might be eliminated.

You can check out the full story on that in today’s online and print editions.

Last week, Blalock asked to have Friday’s budget work session recorded and broadcast on the education channel.

Yesterday, she said the need for that was reinforced by the stories that have circulated about what transpired during the meeting about the cafeteria jobs.

“In hindsight, I certainly wish we would have [recorded and aired it] because it would have cleared up a lot of rumors,” Blalock said.

She noted that the county’s Board of Supervisors airs its meetings and work sessions.

The supervisors hold meetings and work sessions in their board’s chambers. The School Board usually holds its meetings in the School Board meeting room but work sessions in a smaller room behind the meeting room, where it also holds its closed meetings.

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The division’s cafeteria employees have been abuzz since The Free Lance-Star published an article on Sunday saying that division staff brought up in that meeting the prospect of eliminating the cafeteria positions from the budget as a cost-savings measure.

Three assistant superintendents posed that as an option as the board was discussing the mounting costs of the food service. The division hired Chartwells School Dining Service to provide food service in October 2003.

As part of that, then-Superintendent Jerry Hill said that the division’s cafeteria staff would not lose their jobs. Since then, the division has operated with a combination of division staff and Chartwells staff providing meals to students in the schools. Division employees receive the same benefits as other school employees including health insurance and state retirement. Chartwells employees don’t receive division benefits, which makes them less costly to the division.

Since Monday, cafeteria workers have been hearing various accounts of what transpired on Friday, they said during a town hall style meeting at Spotsylvania Middle School Wednesday night.

Blalock said a recording of the meeting would have allowed everyone to see for themselves exactly what was said and by whom.