St. James School Board votes to keep custodial management

Published 12:00 am Saturday, July 20, 2013

By David Vitrano
L’Observateur

LUTCHER – Despite persuasive arguments from custodial services company Aramark and some on the administration, the St. James Parish School Board voted down an amendment to Aramark’s contract that would have extended services to include oversight throughout the district.
“Without oversight, you don’t have anything,” said Aramark representative Brent Gautreau.
His colleague, Terrance Ransfer, added that standardizing procedures across the district would foster efficiency.
Board member George Nassar led the argument against the amended contract, saying he felt the measure was redundant because the district already employs someone to manage custodians.
Currently a combination of district employees and Aramark employees perform custodial services throughout the district. Aramark took over custodial operations at two schools, St. James High School and Gramercy Elementary School, in November 2010. In much the same way First Student gradually took over the district’s transportation system, Aramark is being poised to take over the district’s custodial operations, but it is unclear at this point how this latest development will affect that plan.
Superintendent Alonzo Luce, who supported the contract revision, said, “The amount of headaches has been greatly reduced.”
He said school principals often have to spend large chunks of time supervising the custodial staff, time he thinks could be better spent educating children.
He also said some district employees remain resistant to training on and using the newest, high-tech cleaning equipment recently introduced in the district.
But some on the board felt having district employees be managed by Aramark would create some problems.
“I want to be able to hold our employees accountable, too,” said School Board President Charles Nailor.
Although Luce said the district’s custodial manager, Terry McCreary, would just transition to a somewhat different role, managing the warehouse and coordinating deliveries, a majority of the board felt more comfortable leaving him in charge.
The vote to accept the contract revision failed by a vote 0f 4 to 3.
It was acknowledged, however, that some changes might have to be made to the district’s custodial practices, such as altering the hours custodians work.
Administrative Director of Business Operations Jim Mitchell estimated that under the original contract the School Board saves about $222,000 per year.
The original contract with Aramark was automatically renewed on July 1. It was unclear how the board’s decision would affect the plan to have the company take over custodial operations at Lutcher High School in the fall.
In other action, board member Kenneth Foret suggested the athletic allotment for the two high schools be split in a way that reflects the number of student-athletes at each school, He said Lutcher High has three times as many student-athletes but is only scheduled to receive half of the allotted $44,000.
“I don’t think it’s fair,” he said. “It’s just like the state when they give money to educate children.”
MFP allotments are based on student population.
Nassar suggested leaving the budget item as is this year but revisiting the matter before next year’s budget is drawn up. He said taking away funds from St. James High School so close to the start of football season might pose some problems.
Luce added, “We’ve quite frankly already spent the $22,000 at St. James. But I do agree conceptually with what Mr. Foret was saying.”
Foret’s motion ultimately failed by a vote of 2 to 5.
The board gave a nod of approval to the proposed implementation of BoardDocs, a cloud-based, board document management system that will allow the district to more easily post pertinent information, such as agendas.
“It gives us a better opportunity to be more transparent than we are now.”
Also approved Tuesday were the student handbook, the school calendar and a slightly altered salary schedule, which specified dates of payment for supplemental coaching pay.
“We were paying for services that had not yet been delivered,” said Administrative Director Carol Webre.
The calendar pushed back the high school graduation date to May 23 so dual enrollment students could be sure to have all their grades finalized in time.
It also added five professional development days for district employees.