THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 17, 1994 TAG: 9408170438
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
School Superintendent Sidney L. Faucette announced Tuesday that the school district no longer wants to do business with a private custodial company.
And the School Board voted unanimously to support his decision to take steps to cancel the district's contract with ServiceMaster of Illinois.
Canceling the $1.4 million contract could take four to six months, Faucette said, and he wanted to make sure the board stood behind him before moving ahead.
District officials are preparing to run their own custodial operations, he said. The administration will brief the board Sept. 20 on new and perhaps more efficient ways of doing that.
More than 150 custodians, many dressed in khaki uniforms, packed Tuesday's board meeting in a show of opposition to the contract, which has been controversial almost from the day it was approved about a year ago.
``I feel great because now I can do the good job I know I can do, and that I've been doing, without somebody from outside hassling me,'' said Barbara Wood, a district custodian for 13 years.
After the vote, Faucette said his decision was based not on political pressure but the bottom line.
The superintendent said ServiceMaster did not pass muster on two of the district's key goals: freeing principals to focus more attention on classroom instruction and reaping appreciable savings.
Several board members said they favored Faucette's move because the company hadn't earned many high marks in a recent review. Others said the decision was made too soon.
``I'm very disappointed that we're pulling the plug on ServiceMaster so hastily,'' said board member Joseph D. Taylor II.
Board member Elsie M. Barnes said the move ``does not in any way imply that we go back to business as usual.''
In an Aug. 15 letter to the board, Faucette said ServiceMaster had ``improved overall the quality of custodial care,'' but the company had not ``developed favorable rapport with or earned the confidence of principals.''
District custodians, he added, ``have not been treated properly and that is unacceptable.''
ServiceMaster had promised to save the schools money over four years by reducing the number of full-time custodial positions.
The company also said that by using better equipment and switching some of the remaining custodians from day to night shift, it could provide better cleaning with fewer people.
Faucette had promised that no permanent custodian would lose a job. Full-time custodial positions had been reduced through attrition, he previously said.
But the company had laid off some temporary workers who were not guaranteed permanent jobs.
The arrangement fostered opposition as school administrators began to fear that fewer custodians would be tantamount to less help with odd jobs.
Several black ministers also asserted that the company cared little about the effect its cost-cutting measures had on workers.
In Norfolk, where ServiceMaster has provided custodial services for five years, most principals and teachers have given the company a favorable rating, a schools spokesman said recently. The Norfolk school district will decide next month whether to renew its contract with the company. by CNB