There is always room for negotiation, especially when it comes to contracts that had been previously negotiated “in good faith” by the school board, members of the public said, in coming to the defense of the WW-P school district’s custodial and maintenance staff.
The members of the labor unions and citizens supporting them tried to drill the point home in response to a report released last month by the board’s consultant, Edvocate, which had pointed to the number of vacation days and the employees’ lack of contribution to their medical plans as reasons to privatize the workers’ jobs as a cost-saving measure.
Members of the board, hoping to cut as much as $4.7 million from the budget to fall beneath the 4 percent cap on the tax levy, disputed some of the public’s arguments against the outsourcing, most notably the one of safety.
No decision was made at the special public hearing on the matter, held January 5, but the finance committee is reviewing the matter. If the committee recommends to go ahead with outsourcing the more than 100 custodial and maintenance employees, the board will have to decide whether or not to award a contract for the request for proposals to be written. That could come as early as Tuesday, January 12.
Characterizing it as a “moral issue,” the opposition to a possible outsourcing of the work urged the board, during the hearing that lasted nearly three hours, to think about the message that getting rid of the custodians would send to the students in the district.
“When these members are part of the education system and are valued, then it transcends” to the students, said former Plainsboro Township Committeewoman Ginger Gold Schnitzer. Cutting the custodians would give the impression that “maybe there are certain types of professions that don’t deserve benefits and some that do.”
She pointed to the slogans lining the walls in the Grover Middle School cafeteria — one of which stated, “You have to give respect to get it.”
Last month the board presented the findings by Edvocate and the reasons why the board had looked to the custodial services for areas of cost-savings in the first place. According to the board’s report, status quo budget increases for next year’s school budget already total $7.8 million, which is higher than the amount allowed by the state.
The board decided to assess the building and grounds department because nearly 25 percent of the districts in the state have a contract for buildings and grounds functions, the board’s report said. The board also looked at the fact that the department is considered a “non-core function.”
The assessment by Edvocate found that the public school average for custodial services was $1.35 per square foot of building. In WW-P, that cost is at $2.51. Custodial services costs public schools an average of $278 per student. In WW-P, that translates into a cost of $372 per student.
The study also found that in WW-P, there is a high cost of employee benefits plans for the workers with no employee contribution. Throughout the industry, plans are at moderate costs with employees paying a 35 percent contribution, on average. Buildings and grounds workers in the industry are given an average of 18 to 28 paid days off, compared with WW-P’s workers starting with 52 paid days off, up to 70 days, plus bereavement.
According to the presentation, increases for next year’s school budget come in the area of salaries, projected to increase by $3.25 million, and benefits, expected to increase by $3.2 million.
All together, increases are already at $7.8 million. The maximum increase allowed under the 4 percent state cap, however, is $5.3 million. Officials are hoping for a “more palatable” 2 percent increase of $3.1 million.
Before the board heard public comment, board members asked Bill Gerichter, president of Edvocate, to respond to the community’s concern that outsourcing the work would jeopardize school security. Gerichter said that state law requires all employees to undergo a background check. He said that a private company would also go “one step higher than what you currently have now.”
Board vice president Bob Johnson asked why an estimate comparing in-house costs with that of an outsourced company showed increases in costs in other categories, but a large reduction in custodial services. Gerichter said the company separated the operation into five categories — custodial work, grounds, maintenance, management costs, and operating costs. While only one category has significant savings, “you can’t segregate the operation unless you only want to outsource one aspect of it.”
While the average salary of a custodial professional is between $13 and $14 an hour, maintenance costs will be substantially more because they require personnel with trades. For example, he said, the average costs for electricians would jump drastically from $37.90 to $51.50 per hour, and for painters, it would rise from $19.70 to $44.80.
Gerichter said the report also recommended to increase the full-time maintenance staff numbers because there are not enough maintenance people in the district. He also said the report recommends increasing the grounds staff members by 1.7 people. The management staff was also increased to five positions in the report, he said.
One change the report also suggests is separating the grounds department into two categories — one for the cutting and mowing of school property and another for athletic fields. He said the report suggested outsourcing the mowing and cutting work to a local landscaping company and letting the grounds people deal with the maintenance of athletic fields.
Members of the public still stressed the safety issue, however. Walter Conner, president of the NJ Marine Corps Reserve Association and a regional security consultant who devises counter-terrorist prevention strategies, told the board that he had worked on the crisis management team and worked on the safety assessment at High School South. “The people who are the most important cogs in the wheel of the school district are the custodians,” he said. “The disaster drills cannot be done without the in-house knowledge of these fine men and women.”
Former school board president Richard Harbourt said he understood the board had a hard choice to make, but suggested that instead of cutting the custodial staff, the board freeze all planned increases. He criticized the report as “not complete enough to base a decision on.”
West Windsor resident Gerda Duffy, who handed out a four-page critique of the Edvocate report, pointed to specific findings in the report. “I feel confident if the other West Windsor residents knew about the outsourcing, they would be concerned,” she said, urging members of the public to approach their pastors, rabbis, and other spiritual leaders to talk to their congregants about the “moral issue” at hand.
Susan Levine, president of the West Windsor-Plainsboro Service Association, also criticized the report, which specified having 2.5 “floaters” performing custodial and maintenance duties from Wednesday to Sunday. “Two-point-five people cannot possibly cover these activities,” she said.
Jane Cormack, a secretary in the district, said that the school district last year created a budget that increased by 1.6 percent last year. She said the school board should have gone to cap but instead is now left with a $2.8 million shortfall.
Cormack pointed to the contracts currently in place with the custodial staff, and the number of days off given to the employees under that contract, and said that the union and the school board “negotiated these days in good faith bargaining,” and now the board wants to renege on its word. “You’re not going to place the budget problems on the backs of the support staff,” she said.
Curtis Meissner, the West Windsor-Plainsboro Foreman’s Association president, said any report hired by an outside consultant for a client will “always be prepared with a certain level of bias,” and echoed the sentiment that the terms of the contracts were negotiated in good faith. “Now you’re using them against us in this report.”
He pointed to a statement in the report that custodial staff “try to make a career of working here,” rhetorically asking whether it was a common goal of many people to have careers in what they like to do.
WWPEA president Debbie Baer said she was concerned that a preliminary budget is due in to meet a state deadline in two weeks and it contains numbers that have not been released to the public, who will not know the considerations that were used in coming up with those numbers. This disables public participation and input in trying to solve the deficit. “We’d like to participate in trying to solve this problem.”
Baer made her own suggestions. In addition to tiering the buses, she also suggested requiring all computers in the district to be shut off every day before the end of the day. She also suggested removing refrigerators and coffee makers from teachers’ individual classrooms to save in energy costs. Baer also said that supplies could be ordered more efficiently and that leaving out things like colored paper could save money. “There are savings that can be made if you just ask.”
Susan Nardi, the New Jersey Education Association representative, however, criticized the board’s releasing of a report that criticized the number of days custodial staff were given and the costs to the district for maintaining their medical benefits. “It was as if the board wanted to show what the board could save if it did not have to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement.”
Sherri Bailey, a secretary at South, said she was at a fundraiser in another district where the custodial services had been privatized and that one of the privatized employees could not speak enough English to be able to communicate with her. “People have to be able to understand what our kids want,” she said.
West Windsor Township Councilwoman Linda Geevers urged the board to “please approach the associations to see if there is anything that can be worked out” through more negotiations.
West Windsor resident Hemi Nae said he felt the custodians were “part of the excellent system, and they should stay in the district.”
He criticized the board for continually spending more of the taxpayers’ money, but is now looking to go against agreement that were signed with the district’s workers. “Who created that deficit? You did.” Rather, he suggested the district cut 10 percent across the board.
Teacher Elaine Seldner said she was worried about an increase in thefts with outsourcing to a private company. She said there were other areas the district could cut spending, including technology for its teachers. “I don’t know why we have a laptop computer — I never asked for it,” she said, adding the district should also hold off on buying more Smartboards, which are “nice, but not needed.”
“Our interest in becoming a high-tech district has outweighed our common sense,” Seldner said.
Not everyone, however, was against the privatization of the work. Quentin Walsh, a Plainsboro resident and husband of school board member Ellen Walsh, said he was “pushed over the top” by comments that the board should have spent up to the 4 percent cap last year to prevent the need to cut back on the increases for this year.
“You did something that tried to help the taxpayers,” he said. He said he appreciated the board’s efforts in trying to prevent “taking more and more” from taxpayers. He pointed to the “significant” costs to the district in maintaining the pension and benefits for the workers. “Times have changed, the economy has changed, and I applaud you for trying to do the right thing for the taxpayers.”
Plainsboro resident Loring Funaki, the Walshes’ neighbor on Petty Road, said she had not heard of any tangible alternative for saving a significant amount of money — other than going back to the district and looking for ways to save. “People in this district are suffering,” she said.
West Windsor residents Al and Janet Lerner said that there had to be some solution to the issue to find savings in the budget. This is even “if it means outsourcing because of nothing else forthcoming,” said Janet Lerner. “The NJEA and its membership must face up to the fact that increasing costs cannot continue,” her husband added.
After the public comment drew to a close, board members weighed in, mostly to dispute comments made by residents.
Board member Todd Hochman said that the board has two priorities: to provide a quality education and to do so “at a price the townships’ taxpayers can afford.
“It is not an obligation to provide premium jobs for the community,” Hochman quipped. “It’s very difficult to expect taxpayers to fund the kind of raises we see here.”
There have to be cuts made somewhere, he added. “I don’t want to see it come from the classroom, and I want to do everything I can to avoid it coming from the classroom.”
Johnson responded to members of the public who had said the board negotiated the contracts with the unions. He said he looked at the how far apart the numbers in the report show the average industry salaries for custodians in comparison with those in-house. He said he would have preferred the salaries to have been toward the middle.
He pointed to the unions who have “orchestrated the lawn signs” and referenced the NJEA, “a state organization that’s one of the most powerful in the nation,” which was able to pull for the high salaries, he said. “If we could sit down face-to-face with the rank and file with the unions, we would come to a more reasonable solution,” he said.
“We’ve reached a situation that is just unsustainable,” he added.
School Board President Hemant Marathe responded to the safety concerns, saying his wife said to him she did not think he was “dumb enough to put your own kids at risk” if the move was dangerous. He called the safety concerns a “false issue” and also took offense to comments from the public about more thefts occurring if the decision is to outsource the work. “It’s unfair to suggest somebody will steal because they are paid less.”
With regard to the issue being a moral one, Marathe said he spoke with a resident who told him that “if you increased the taxes by $250, I will have to leave the district.”
“Is that moral to you? It goes both ways,” Marathe added.
Marathe also said that school boards have been consistently criticized for spending too much, yet when the board tries to cut spending, it is criticized for the areas it looks for cuts. “Those days are numbered; you can’t have it both ways,” he said.
