District rehires 18 custodians

By: Cara Latham
   WASHINGTON — To ensure there are custodians in place for next year, the Board of Education last week rehired 18 of the district’s 24 currently employed custodians.
   At the same time, school board attorney Matthew Giacobbe said the board’s attorneys were reviewing the bid specifications to go out for privatization of the services.
   In a phone interview last week, Mr. Giacobbe said the board has not yet made a determination about whether it will privatize the service. After the board receives bids, officials will sit down with the custodians’ union and discuss the possibilities, he added
   He said that not all of the custodians were rehired because some of them got other jobs in the meantime. However, Steven Somers, a custodian at Robbinsville High School who was one of those rehired, said he thinks the school board just made the move to "calm everybody down."
   "I’m still leery of how long we’re going to be there," he said. "We feel like we’re being pawns in the game of the system."
   He said some of his fellow custodians have found jobs in other districts, and that he has applied to other districts as well.
   "If I get an offer for better, I’m going to take it," he said. "It’s just not a secure feeling with them."
   Vinny Brigida, a former custodian at Sharon Elementary School, has found a job as a custodian for Lawrence public schools, he said last week. He said he started looking around for jobs with other school districts in March, when talk of privatization began because he has a family to take care of and he "couldn’t sit around and wait." And, like Mr. Somers, he is not optimistic about the future of Washington’s custodial staff.
   "In my opinion they’re going to cut them (the rehired custodians) anyway," he said. "Whoever’s left is going to be strung along. They’ll go to work every day until the board can figure out who they want, and then they’re going to cut everybody."
   Plus, being hired at Lawrence "turned out to be a blessing," he said.
   "It pays more, is run more efficiently, more professionally," he said. "I guess things happen for a reason. I (otherwise) would have never left Washington Township. It’s a good district."
   He also said that from the beginning, he believed that privatization would actually turn out to hurt the district with regard to ensuring the service was being completed by employees who had accurate background checks.
   About a month and a half ago, he said, he and other custodians working at Sharon were moved over to work at the high school, and a new cleaning company was brought in to take care of the duties there. However, they had to send about four of the new cleaning crew members home because they didn’t have updated background checks, he added.
   Board President Mark Setaro said the school district did have to bring in Aramark to fill in for the custodians because "we’d been having a high number of absences of our current custodial staff."
   As for those employees being sent home because of the background checks, he said he didn’t know anything about that. "There’s been people complimenting their services so far," he added.
   The board began formally discussing the possibility of privatizing the custodial duties in the district in April to save money. The average salary of a district custodian is $28,840 and includes a benefit package from the district and a pension from the state. Under privatization, the benefit package and state pension would dissolve unless the custodian has been employed in the district for more than 10 years. Those on staff fewer than 10 years would be offered benefits and a pension option from whatever company would take over.
   Superintendent Jack Szabo has said the privatization could potentially save the district up to $250,000 annually.
   Mr. Setaro said that while he does feel bad for the current custodians, "it’s business, unfortunately. We are in tight budget times, and we as a board are trying to consolidate and economize as best as we can with the lack of revenues that we get from the state, and our increased reliance on local property taxes."
   Still, "there is a human element to these things," he said. He noted that the board hopes that whatever contractor gets a successful bid, "that these people (current custodians) can be hired by that company and be given preference in hiring so that they won’t lose their positions and be without work if and when that time comes."