School Board privatizes custodial services

MANATEE COUNTY — The faces will change, but the services will remain the same, as custodial services at two East County schools now will be privatized as part of a new pilot program.

The Manatee County School Board Jan. 9 voted 3-2 in favor of privatizing custodial services at four schools, including Braden River Elementary and Haile Middle School. The move is expected to save the district $160,000.

Robert Gause, Barbara Harvey and Harry Kinnan supported the measure; Julie Aranibar and Karen Carpenter dissented.

Aranibar, a Lakewood Ranch resident, cited a lack of information as the primary reason she opposed the measure.

“Bruce Mohr, union representative (for custodial workers), was not given information in time to review,” Aranibar said. “He saw the proposal bid just before the School Board meeting and had concerns over items that were not clear. … It is easy for a plan to save money to end up costing money.

“Custodians are vital to school operation,” Aranibar said. “They are paid on average about $10 an hour and, because of good benefits, stay on. When the benefits are gone, (staff members) take a job until something better comes along, and that means a lot of training and new people learning a job quickly.”

As a result of the decision, the head custodian will remain on site at Braden River, Haile and Prine and Miller elementary schools, while the remaining 10 custodians will be moved to other schools.

“They’ll be placed by seniority at other school sites that have vacancies; and we’ve been holding vacancies for this (specifically),” said Todd Henson, director of maintenance and operations for the school district. “No one is losing jobs or pay.”

American Facilities Services will be in charge of custodial services at Braden River, Prine and Haile, while United Service Source Inc. will take care of custodial services at Miller. However, the district will retain all of its custodial equipment.

“We’re not selling off our assets,” Henson said. “We look for a smooth transition. It’s an exchange for an exchange. We’re just asking someone else to perform.”

The district began discussing the pilot program last summer during its budget discussion. The idea was one of Superintendent Tim McGonegal’s budget reduction strategies. The board approved it as a trial component of the overall budget reduction.

However, it wasn’t until shortly after school resumed that the district began asking for volunteers to participate in the pilot program. Several schools volunteered to participate, and Braden River, Haile and Prine and Miller were chosen based on a first-come, first-serve basis.

“We actually had other volunteers, but we didn’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves,” Henson said. “We were going to do three (schools) and agreed to do four.”

As of now, the district only plans to implement the pilot program at the four schools.

“It would be up to the board and superintendent to approach other schools about the trial and to see if that’s something they (would be interested in),” Henson said.

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].