School system reduces janitors: Cutting 24 workers will save system around $350,000
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“I’m not here to tell you this is a perfect plan,” said Holland, “but it keeps the majority in the system and hopefully will increase productivity. If not, we can take a look at it next year.”
Voting against Holland’s plan were Edd Cantrell and Dr. Deborah Watlington, who voiced their concerns that Holland’s plan did not adequately address the uniform cleanliness of all of the schools and put too much of a burden on principals, who will be responsible for cleanliness of their individual schools.
“I believe the best option is to outsource,” said Watlington, who with Cantrell voted to allow Knoxville-based SSC Service Solutions to take over the custodial service. “It would give the responsibility of cleaning and supervision to the cleaning professionals and leave the principals to be educators.”
The School Board has been studying outsourcing the system’s custodial service for close to three months as a means of saving money and ensuring all schools receive adequate, uniform cleaning. During this time, they have heard proposals from 10 cleaning services. Late last month, Holland presented his own plan.
Holland’s plan, as passed Thursday night, bases the layoffs of 24 custodians on state law which requires only one custodian per 21,833 square feet of building space. As the school system has 934,877 square feet of buildings, it only has to employ 41 custodians instead of the 65 now on payroll.
All schools would have to lay off at least one custodian, except for the high school and the middle school. Another cost-saving provision includes cutting the number of days custodians work by 30 per year.
Addressing the issue of uniform cleanliness, the plan includes a checklist to be used by each school’s principal or his or her designee in inspecting the cleanliness of each school’s classrooms, bathrooms and halls.
A big change made to Holland’s original plan was the adding back of paid sick, holiday and vacation days to custodians who have less than five years experience. This was done, in part, due to the recommendation of School Board attorney Mike Galligan who said he did not think it was legally defensible. The measure will cost $39,436.
In all, the plan will cost the system $841,835, resulting in savings of about $350,000. Holland noted, however, this figure is an approximation as he used averages in calculating wages and other benefits. It could be $10,000 to 15,000 above or below that number, he said.