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Strapped school districts contracting out for services
WALDPORT, Oregon (AP) -- For 14 years, Michael Donovan mopped the floors, washed windows and scrubbed toilets as a school custodian, becoming something of a celebrity in this small town, where he is recognized in the grocery store by youngsters who cry out: "There's Michael-the-custodian! Hi, Michael-the-custodian!" Donovan, a 56-year-old former hippie who never cut off his ponytail or gave away his guitar, had knocked around from job to job before settling in Waldport, population 2,050. His benefits as a janitor were solid, and he got great satisfaction from the job. "If I cleaned up the vomit from the floor, well, OK, I get the sense that I did something real today," he said. But this spring, the Lincoln County School District voted to contract out for custodians, along with bus drivers and cafeteria workers. Donovan is now looking for another job. School boards all over the United States have turned to outsourcing in increasing numbers this year because of some of the worst budget troubles since the Depression. "The big lie is that the standard is not going to be lowered," Donovan said. "But tell that to the teacher who has to spend the first 10 minutes of her day cleaning the classroom, taking instructional time from the kids." In Collinsville, Illinois, the district just signed a contract with food services giant Sodexho in hopes of saving $225,000, largely because the cafeteria workers' salaries will drop from an average of $16 an hour to $7.50. The district is also considering outsourcing custodians, a move it says could save $300,000. Pitched battlesIn California, school business administrators are pressing Democratic Gov. Gray Davis to repeal a bill he signed last session that prohibits school districts from entering into contracts that would displace school district employees. School leaders there say they need more flexibility to cope with billions of dollars in budget cuts. The Lincoln County decision came after months of pitched battles, including a recall election that claimed the seats of four of five school board members and an 11th-hour offer by the unionized support staff to take a 15 percent pay cut.
In the end, district officials said the $1.5 million they believed they could save by privatizing the support staff was just too good to pass up. School board chairman Ron Beck said board members felt it was most important to shield teachers. "It is downright criminal that we had to protect one member of our team by selling off another member," Beck said. "But with the budget forecast, we needed to look at every little piece of what we were doing." The district will join the one-third of the state's 198 school districts that already contract out bus service. Thirty-two districts do so for food services, and 17 use outside contractors for custodial services, according to the Oregon School Boards Association. The practice gained momentum in the state when Portland, Oregon's biggest school district privatized its custodians in 2002 after a bitter fight. In small Lincoln County towns like Waldport and Newport (pop. 10,500), many of the current custodians, bus drivers and cafeteria workers will be reapplying for their old jobs, through the outside contractors. Among them: Carolyn Smyth, 56, a bus driver and union leader in Newport. "I'm the main income source for my family," she said. "I've got to try and get some supervisory level job with the contractor." If Smyth and other workers do get their old jobs back, it will be at their old salaries, but without the retirement benefits public employees receive. They will also be required to pay far more for health care. Donovan -- Michael-the-custodian -- reapplied for his old job, but was turned down. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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