In budget squeeze, new sponges help

When faced with millions of dollars in budget shortfalls earlier this year, school systems across Virginia searched for ways to ease those deficits.

School officials say they weren't easy decisions to make but necessary ones.

"When you're looking at a reduction of $2.6 million, you have to look beyond fewer pencils and paper products, and you certainly can't make a great deal of money raising student fees," New Kent County School Superintendent Rick Richardson said.

One step New Kent took was to join a growing number of systems throughout the state that outsource their custodial services. The county School Board approved a proposal to sign a three-year contract with SSC Service Solutions, a Tennessee-based company.

"For us, to realize any amount of benefit from a financial standpoint, we pretty much had to go with all four buildings," Richardson said, referring to the schools in New Kent.

In central Virginia, New Kent isn't alone in making that change, which took effect at the beginning of the fiscal year July 1. Dinwiddie County expanded its current contract with Service Solutions to include two additional schools, while Powhatan and Amelia counties renewed their contracts with Service Solutions.

By outsourcing its custodial services, New Kent is projected to save $175,000 for the 2009-10 school year, while Dinwiddie is saving about $420,000 and Powhatan about $250,000.

Savings also can reach to the larger school systems as well. In a June 2007 audit of Richmond school-system efficiencies and funding, the Richmond auditor's office said the system could save $4.3 million if it outsourced its custodial services.

. . .

Jennifer Steward, vice president of business development at SSC Service Solutions, said the 40-year-old company projected that more school systems might look to outsource their custodial services this year but believes many systems put off the decision because they received federal stimulus money.

Such was the case in Powhatan, which could have realized an additional $280,000 in savings to outsource custodial services at its four remaining schools but instead is using stimulus funds to offset the difference, said Paul Imig, assistant school superintendent.

Imig said he isn't sure what might happen next year, when the stimulus funds no longer are available.

Service Solutions currently has contracts with 50 school systems across the country and as many as eight in Virginia.

Wage and benefits packages, Steward said, are negotiated in the contract, and they likely will be lower than what a school system pays. If custodians are offered the same package in the contract as they are from the school system, "where's the savings?" she asked.

Service Solutions and its four divisions specialize in cleaning shopping centers, K-12 school systems, colleges and industrial facilities.

"We feel like our core principal is cleaning, and that's what we're great at. We don't want to water it down with a bunch of other stuff," Steward said.

That's one of the reasons Dinwiddie Superintendent Charles Maranzano Jr. advocated using such a company to clean the system's schools.

"Supervising custodians for school divisions is extremely problematic because we're not experts in the area of square-foot cleaning. . . . It's becoming a highly specialized field," Maranzano said.

. . .

But when school systems were making the decision to outsource their custodial services, the human element remained at the forefront of their minds.

Richardson said as New Kent negotiated the contract with Service Solutions, the school system asked for several stipulations to help the 18 custodians who would be affected.

They are guaranteed a job for four months with the new company, and during that period, the company can't fire or let go "our employees that come work for them without our permission," Richardson said.

Richardson also said about 15 of those custodians remain in the school system, while custodians remaining with Dinwiddie and Powhatan are lower.

"Through this process of attrition, we were able to phase out, reassign or purge the system of ineffective employees," Maranzano said.

Service Solutions uses a combination of fulland part-time employees to clean the schools in each of the localities. Service Solutions employs 30 custodians to clean four schools in New Kent; 40 to clean four schools in Dinwiddie; 20 to clean three schools in Amelia; and 30 for two schools in Powhatan.

Since taking over the New Kent schools last month, school officials have been pleased with the cleaning at their schools. Ed Smith, assistant superintendent in New Kent, said the floors of the high school look better than when the $52 million school opened last year.

But the optimism is cautious, because students still are on summer break.

"We will see what will happen when kids start walking on those floors. Then we'll see how the care goes into it," Smith said. "We'll keep a close eye on it, and we have no qualms going to them and saying this is where you need to improve."

Contact Jeremy Slayton at (804) 649-6861 or .