The custodian & maintenance staff of the Columbia Public Schools won an important victory when the school board voted not to outsource the staff for the new Battle High School. The result would have been lower pay and loss of their state pension, in addition to probable future outsourcing of the staff district wide. Not to mention the inevitable turnover and low morale that would result. Kudos to those district workers who bravely stood up for themselves and the CMNEA President Susan McClintic, who spoke publicly and privately to the board and administration in opposition to the outsourcing.
Columbia Tribune
By CATHERINE MARTIN
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
The Columbia Board of Education last night rejected a proposal to outsource maintenance staff at Battle High School after hearing concerns from Columbia Public Schools janitors.
Administrators first asked the board to consider outsourcing to GCA Education Services, based in Knoxville, Tenn., at a meeting last month. The proposal was sent back to the administration after some board members voiced concerns about pay and benefits. A revised proposal, with increased pay and benefits, went to the board last night, but members agreed it still wasn't up to snuff. The measure was defeated 6-1, with Tom Rose casting the only vote in support of outsourcing.
In the initial proposal, pay from GCA started at $8.50 for custodians and topped out at $13.50 for hourly supervisors. District pay ranges from $9.15 to $16.05. A revised proposal changed the GCA pay range to $9.15 to $14.50. Employees for GCA also would have 20 fewer sick days or paid holidays.
Longtime janitor Alvin Sweezer said custodial employees who have been with the district for 10 to 15 years were worried about what the proposal would do to their jobs, and some even discussed early retirement.
The proposal was presented as a cost-saving measure — the initial plan with GCA would have saved the district $298,792, and the revised planned would have saved $240,756. Battle, the district's newest school, would have served as an experiment for outsourcing custodial staff, Superintendent Chris Belcher told the finance committee last week.
If it went well, the district would expand the plan. If it didn't go well, it would be a learning experience, Belcher said.
But custodians saw it differently, district custodial employee Jeff Hempstead said.
"This is being called a pilot program," he said. "Most custodians think it's the beginning of a program to eliminate our jobs within Columbia Public Schools."
Board member Jim Whitt said although the plan was just for Battle, the next logical step on many people's minds would be expanding it to the rest of the district.
"Everybody is going to look at this and say, 'This will cost me to lose 20 days,' " he said, referring to benefits. "At this point in time, I'm a little uncomfortable with that."
One of the biggest reasons for the cost savings was that the GCA plan only called for 12.5 full-time equivalent positions at Battle, while the district's plan called for 19. Some board members proposed bringing in a consultant to work on having a more efficient in-house system districtwide.
"What I'm struggling with now, I've heard enough from employees and community members that maybe now is just not the right time for this," board member Christine King said, pointing to recent board approval to outsource substitute teachers.
"That might have rubbed some people a little wrong. … My personal feeling is to see us say 'no' to this and say, 'Let's regroup and get a consultant and look at it in more detail.' "
Deputy Superintendent Nick Boren said he wasn't aware of such services but `would look into it.
Sweezer said "it was nice" that the board rejected the proposal, and he said he hopes the district provides more training to make sure its employees are working efficiently.
Reach Catherine Martin at 573-815-1711 or e-mail cmartin@columbiatribune.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment