Jeffco Nutrition Director Misled Parents and Misused Funds
Jefferson County, CO – Is what Beth Wallace did grounds for termination? Not in Jeffco.
Beth Wallace, Executive Director of Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) at Jeffco Public Schools, oversees tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded school nutrition programs which are critical in schools with high numbers of students of color and students from working class families, like Jefferson Jr/Sr Articulation Area in Edgewater, Colorado.
Despite documented evidence of misconduct — including misleading district leadership, misrepresenting data, ignoring grant restrictions, and violating the agreements of a union and community-led pilot program — she remains in her position, unaccountable.
This controversy centers around a healthy school meals pilot led by JESPA (Jeffco Education Support Professionals Association) and a group of Edgewater-area parents from the Edgewater Collective. The pilot was designed to introduce scratch-cooked, culturally relevant food at three schools: Jefferson Jr/Sr High, Edgewater Elementary, and Lumberg Elementary. In 2023, a $50,000 grant from the Colorado Gives Foundation intended to fund a salad bar at each site.
Wallace knew the funds were obtained using the pilot schools and were intended for salad bars specifically for each of these three schools. Yet, she chose to spend over $30,000 on a single touchless salad bar for Jefferson Jr/Sr High — an expensive, high-tech unit that arrived late and required special training to use. The salad bar was finally installed and began operating on January 29, 2024.
And yet, after only 83 serving days, Wallace ordered the salad bar removed from Jefferson Jr/Sr High — without informing the school community, the superintendent, or her own Chief of Operations. Internal emails show her plan was to relocate the equipment to Chatfield High School — a more affluent school well outside the grant area.
It wasn’t a mistake. It was a decision. And it was made behind closed doors.
The community only learned what had happened when a group of Edgewater parent leaders — known as the Pilot Moms — returned to school in August 2024 and discovered the salad bar missing. When they demanded answers, senior leadership, including Superintendent Tracy Dorland, admitted they had no idea it had been removed.
Manipulating the Numbers
When pressed for justification, Wallace framed the removal as a performance issue. She claimed the salad bar was underused — citing an average of 8.4 meals per day and an unsustainable $18.63 per-meal cost.
But she seemed to have left out the most successful period of the program: the first two and a half weeks, when 351 meals were served — averaging 27 per day. Why did participation go down? Her claim wasn’t just misleading, it was based on an incomplete dataset and one that did not account for why participation declined. In JESPA’s experience, she often chooses to present part of the story to district leadership and the public. And according to reports, when the salad bar was gaining popularity with school staff, Wallace responded by doubling the price — discouraging further use.
Wallace also told the Pilot Moms that FNS was “waiting to hire” someone to run the salad bar. In reality, her team had already eliminated the position at Jefferson in July — right after the salad bar was pulled. Wallace’s claim appears to be contradicted by an internal email responding to an inquiry from a colleague, Dianna Garcia, about hiring a candidate for Jefferson Jr/Sr, dated July 25, 2024, in which Katie Jeter, FNS Director of Resources, explicitly states:
“We are going to eliminate that position at Jefferson because it pulls the anticipated MPLH to 8 (goal is 16). So it’s over-staffed. With the removal of the salad bar, we will not need that position.”
Wallace also told the Pilot Moms the district was still deciding where to relocate the salad bar and was seeking feedback from the group. However, internal emails show that by early July, plans to move the salad bar to Chatfield High School were already in motion — months before the community was informed.
$30,000 of Dysfunctional Equipment — No Accountability
What Wallace hasn’t addressed is the equipment itself.
The touchless salad bar she purchased for Jefferson reportedly cost over $30,000 — and it frequently malfunctioned. Internal accounts describe the unit as a “prototype” or untested, with inconsistent performance and unclear protocols. Staff were left troubleshooting a complex machine that proved to be troublesome to use. If the machine was truly a prototype, why did we pay so much for it? In fact, why wasn’t it provided without cost?
Despite these issues, Wallace did not acknowledge the equipment failures publicly. Instead, she seemed to blame the schools for low participation.
In the presentation to the Pilot workgroup on September 25, Wallace misled the parents, saying that the grant was for district wide food service, and stating “This was not a salad bar grant. This was a partnering with local produce and bringing in local produce. And so it was not a specific salad bar grant.” This appears to be an outright lie, as the grant letter, agreement, and emails clearly describe the grant as supporting “implementation of salad stations at three schools” specifically Jefferson, Edgewater, and Lumberg.
Wallace also referred to the salad bar as a prototype in that same meeting, stating: “That’s why it’s a one-time pilot. You know, I got 130 schools to look at, so we would never spend that kind of money.” Yet she had already spent over $30,000 from a grant tied to three specific schools to purchase the unit.
A Pattern — Not a Fluke
This isn’t a one-off incident. This is a pattern.
Beth Wallace:
- Removed the salad bar without telling the community
- Misrepresented participation data by omitting the strongest weeks
- Raised prices for staff after seeing strong participation
- Eliminated the position at Jefferson while publicly claiming hiring delays
- Failed to disclose the salad bar’s operational failures
- Violated the terms of a restricted-use grant
- Used the pilot she opposed to obtain funding — then sabotaged it from within
At best, this is unethical leadership. At worst, it’s a deliberate misuse of funds and a deliberate cover-up.
Jefferson Deserves Better
The removal of the salad bar must be seen in the broader context of how Jeffco treats the Jefferson community as well as how the FNS Department functions. The school — a majority Latino, working-class campus — is now under threat of closure.
Jeffco has a troubling pattern of discrimination and retaliation toward workers and the community, evidenced through years of complaints and grievances filed by both JESPA and community members.
The pattern is clear: the overwhelmingly affluent, white leadership makes decisions without community input, then scrambles to justify them once the community catches on. Community trust? Gone.
Every day Beth Wallace remains in power sends a message to families, workers, and students that mismanagement, dishonesty, and betrayal are acceptable in Jeffco Public Schools. It’s time for the Board of Education to stop justifying actions of their administrators and start holding them accountable.
Beth Wallace should be removed from her role. And the families of Jefferson deserve a district that respects their voice, their values, and their right to be heard.
