Stories indexed with the term ‘custodial services’

A three-year contract with Magic Finish to provide custodial and event services at Cobblestone Farm was recommended for approval by the Ann Arbor park advisory commission at its Feb. 26, 2013 meeting. The contract would not exceed $44,250 annually, from fiscal year 2013 through fiscal year 2016. It would include an option to renew administratively for an additional two years at an amount not to exceed $47,200.

Four firms bid on the contract, according to a staff memo, but two of those bidders – Kristel Cleaning and Pristine Cleaning – were disqualified. Magic Finish submitted a lower bid than H & K Janitorial Services.

The city-owned Cobblestone Farm, located at 2781 Packard, is used as office space for the parks … [Full Story]

Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education meeting (April 28, 2010): The most recent regular school board meeting of the Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) ended the debate over privatization of the district’s custodial and maintenance workers – it’s not happening.

The board’s ratification of an agreement between AAPS and local members of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union retains the 164 workers and their seven supervisors as AAPS employees. In return, custodial and maintenance workers agreed to lower wages, less vacation time, and almost double the cost of health insurance premiums.

Also at this meeting, an initiative to consolidate the busing services of at least five of the ten school districts in Washtenaw County was introduced to the board as a first briefing item. The consolidation plan is still under development, but as currently formulated, it would save the district $2.1 million in transportation costs, and would require only around 60% of the total number of bus drivers and monitors currently employed by participating districts. Bus drivers hired as part of the consolidated service plan would become employees of the Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD), maintaining their pensions as part of the state retirement system.

Many community members were on hand to support the numerous award recipients honored during the course of the board’s meeting. But the meeting drew no public commentary, and no one spoke at the embedded public hearing on sexual health curricular materials. Large-scale facilities projects, a personal curriculum option, and policy updates were also approved.

A large, roughly three-hour chunk of the meeting was devoted to a detailed presentation of the district’s current achievement data, and a discussion of the “achievement gap” between students of different races. This topic may be addressed by The Chronicle in a separate article, and is thus mentioned only briefly in this meeting report. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education meeting (Jan. 20, 2010): Wednesday’s meeting of the AAPS board of education was a study in contrasts.

On one hand, it was an evening of accolades and celebrations.  The board heard recommendations to pay tribute to the work of two longtime AAPS staff members by naming facilities in their honor, community participation in budget planning was lauded, and the students from this year’s Hikone Exchange Program reported on their trip to Ann Arbor’s sister city of Hikone, Japan.

At the same time, concerns about possible privatization of custodial, maintenance, and transportation services dominated the meeting’s public commentary. And when the same presentation that was made to recent public budget forums was repeated for the board, looming school budget cuts again came to the fore. Requests for proposals (RFPs) for outsourcing that are a part of those cuts were also briefly discussed. [Full Story]