I hope I’m not getting Vince in trouble by praising him this morning.
I was reading the AAPLE report on the results of outsourcing custodial services at CPS and what a disaster it has become.
Filthy school buildings have become the Chicago norm.
Reading this made me think about Vince.
Vince was the custodian at my school the year I retired.
He’s still there.
You can’t outsource Vince. He is as integral a part of our school as any classroom teacher.
Or Art teacher.
A few years ago I walked into the space that we were using as a conference room, often with parents.
Over the years, the room served as a store-room, as offices for some support staff and even teaching space. It had become pretty rough around the edges.
That day the room looked great. It had been painted a warm color blue.
“What’s with the conference room?” I asked Vince.
“We couldn’t let parents meet with staff in that room the way it looked.”
Vince had chosen the color and painted it without a work order. Even the color of the paint was not standard school latex gray.
I went down to the art room and pulled five 18×22 drawings that my fourth graders had done and used push pins to line them up in a straight line against that beautiful blue wall.
The space had become a gallery now, worthy of staffings with parents and teachers.
You can privatize custodial services.
You just can’t outsource this stuff.
Fred Klonsky 
Your thoughts of Vince remind me of Les, the custodian / engineer at our very small school. Les always had a busy day. I remember once when a teacher came into the office and told the clerk that she had just broke several bottles of juice for a student rewards party in her car as she was pulling into the parking lot. Without blinking an eye, Les was out there cleaning up the sticky mess. There were also many other times when I saw Les helping teachers repair flat tires or get their cars jumped after the batteries had failed to turn over.
The janitorial staff has been a vital part of my district for DECADES!!!! Heck, I worked 11 summers with them. One of them, Paul, once helped out in a small gym class by playing goalie in floorhocky. He would tie shoes for the kindergardeners. When you needed someting fixed you just asked Paul. No work order needed! Within MINUTES it was done!! Through the years I have seen several different members of the janitorial staff help out teachers with flat tires, jumped batteries (including me) and help with a car stuck in snow. I’m sure the private company would frown on that, A teacher in one such district was told the private janitors were not allowed to jump his car!! We even had a Vince (Paul’s brother) If a district is smart they would NEVER outsource the janitors, secretaries or nurses!!!!!! A school is a community that needs the human element!!
The “outsourcing” is just a way to cut wages and benefits while adding a middleman. There is little or no accountability.
One trick some of these companies use is to underbid the first year or two. A school district then lays off their own employees and the contractor takes over. If the contractor hires the former school district employees as part of the deal, the employees find themselves given impossible work loads, bad reviews, and being written up for vague, subjective things that were not part of their responsibilities. Example, if vandals break a sink, the employee finds himself written up as “failed to keep plumbing in good working order”. The reason this is done is to get the employee to quit and be replaced before the contract is renewed. That way, the school district is in a position where their former employees and supervisors are unavailable to possibly be re-hired by the school district. The contractor then has the school board unable to do anything other then continue to contract. The price on the contract then goes way up, and the level of service goes down even more. The school ends up paying more then when they had their own employees, and at that point there is nothing they can do about it, and they have filthy dirty stinking schools. It ends up with the teachers buying and bringing in TP, soap, and paper towels for the kids to use. “We ran out and there is no money in the budget to buy more until next year.” The school board again saves money at the expense of the teachers and other employees.
How are these contracts written? We do nothing and taxpayers pay? how are these clearly non contract contracts untouchable yet pension contracts must be cut?
The finance dept. is only interested in numbers on paper. If it looks like they save money they will fall for it. Once their long term, dedicated employees who know the buildings are gone, the school is stuck with contractors.
The knowledge of the in house staff is built up over decades of long term employees actual hands on experience. Once gone, they can not be successfully replaced by a contractor that has an employee turnover rate of a few months.
When the focus in the workplace is/becomes money ALL humanity disappears. This is always true!
why does all this outsourcing with negative results, just to save money, always happen in the black inner city schools and never in white suburban school districts? that is a such a disgrace for this country. maybe all the politicians figure “why educate them, their gonna just be shot by racist cops before they turn 20 anyhow “? the education system for young African americans is in shambles and no one seems to care. racism is alive and well in the good ole us of a. as a proud grandfather of five beautiful black grandchildren it breaks my heart to see this, as I fear for their safety.
It is happening everywhere, many suburban districts are doing this. Race has nothing to do with this, it is strictly about the money.
They tried to outsource in my district and there was an “uprising” among staff and parents. The custodians were a part of their schools and always went well beyond what could be called custodial responsibilities. The thought of having random people cycle through the schools had no appeal. We won!
Is that because you’re in a white, suburban school district, 2old, where administrators still actually LISTEN to staff & parents?!
Nonetheless, good for you all for telling truth to power–& winning!
That having been said, I’d like to see this outcome in ALL the public schools–CPS on south/west sides & “ring” suburbs (Harvey, Dolton, etc.).