Last night the FWCS board voted 6 to 1 in favor of outsourcing 200 custodial jobs to Sodexo. Current FWCS custodians will be allowed to interview for jobs with the new provider but even if they are hired, will take a beating in wages and benefits.
I'm not a fan of outsourcing but in 35 years in private industry I never worked in a building where custodians, either for cleaning or building maintenance, were on the company payroll. In the mid nineties we even outsourced the security guards at the plant I worked in. What's obvious from the pay cuts the FWCS custodians will have to take (from around $18/hr. to $11/hr) is that they were making way more than the going rates outside the public sector.
I agree with the custodians that there is a value in having district employees dealing with the kids in our schools. But how do you quantify that value? I have no information about the process leading to the board's decision. Sodexo will charge the district a management fee which will be added to the hourly pay of the custodians. If this were given to the employees, presumably they would still have done better as part of FWCS than they will when they are outsourced. But apparently they couldn't accept the necessary concessions.
So both sides lose.
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9 comments:
$18 an hour? A first year FWPD officer makes $16 an hour.
Makes you wonder how FWCS, which claims to stand for fiscal reposibility, would allow custodian wages to get so far out of line with the private sector
In the original FWCS budget cut plan, outsourcing custodians was to save $2 million. With the new contract, FWCS is saving $4.4 million. Does that mean they will hire back more teachers?
Also, I see that this company pays 70% of an employee's health insurance cost...I hope the teacher's union is paying attention!
Unless the economy turns around, they're facing another cut in state revenue next year. If anything, there will be more teacher cuts unless FWEA makes some concessions, like on health insurance.
Rumors on the street has it that every FWCS high school is going to add another assistant principal position to make sure the company hired is doing their job. I would like to ask Mrs. Stockman if this is true. I know you are reading this Mrs Stockman so please do your job and answer the question.
If they are adding this new position it makes it clear that Grile is more concerned with adding more administrators and not with saving money. Thanks Wendy for all thay you do!
The three asst principals originally assigned to Elmhurst have been moved to other schools, not cut. We were told by FWCS that under hs reinvent, each hs would have 3 asst principals (curriculum, student services, freshman community...I think). It will be interesting if they stick to their word. Will the board even remember? Or care!
Is it any wonder Wendy would protect her "friends"...she meets with them once a month and they tell her how wonderfull she is!!
Siestagirl:
Actually only Wayne, Elmhurst and South Side have had three assistant principals for the past several years. North Side, Snider, and Northrop have had four assistant principals. Imagine, FWCS paid $1,500.000 a year in salaries to high school assistant principals last year alone. Just think if FWCS got rid of one assistant principal in each high school how much money it could save. I have a savings of $400.000a year. Instead, FWCS will probably add an additional assistant principal to each school. So we will now pay almost two million dollars a year for assistant principals at the high school level. Being Wendy's friend does have its privileges.
I would think that protecting administrators while laying off teachers would be a real bone of contention for FWEA. On the other hand with retirements and voluntary departures the actual number of members losing their jobs is probalby about half the number of positions cut. And the losers are almost all younger teachers. The senior teachers will be saved even though their departure would pay for two younger ones. I think they call that egalitarianism.
You are correct, SC. So that is 21 assistant principals. But I am saying that FWCS administration declared that under the NEW system, each hs would have three asst prinicpals. Look in their own document: school board presentation, 10-26-09 slide 34. Three: curriculum, behavior modification and 8th grade.
That would be 15 asst principals in 10-11...the fiscally responsible school board needs to hole them to that!!
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