Graded School Board looks at outsourcing janitorial services

Nine outside firms have expressed interest in providing janitorial services in the Waterford Graded School District, officials announced Monday.

At a School Board Personnel and Finance Committee meeting, Superintendent Chris Joch provided an update on the issue, which has been previously discussed as a cost-savings measure. The interest came from firms in a range of communities, including Brookfield and Muskego.

Committee members discussed the current structure of janitorial and cleaning services and considered tweaking the structure in future years. There currently are four first-shift custodians at each of the district’s four schools. During second shift, when school is not in session, there are six custodians to handle deeper cleaning issues. In the summer months, custodial services are consolidated into one shift.

Some school districts have differentiated between janitors, who perform higher-level tasks, and cleaners, who tend strictly to tidying up the area they are assigned to. Waterford Graded does not have a delineation between the two.

“I would rethink the whole broad spectrum of custodial vs. cleaning staff,” said School Board President Dan Jensen, who serves on the committee. “There might be an opportunity for some task-sharing here.”

Several committee members asked Joch to provide a detailed breakdown of janitorial staff’s existing day-to-day responsibilities throughout the district to get a better handle on expectations in the future, should the service go private.

The committee provided Joch with further insight on some of the questions that bubbled to the surface during his dialogue with prospective companies. Several of the firms, for example, asked who would be providing supplies – the company or the district.

“As a cleaning company, they’d probably be better equipped to buy in bulk and at a better price,” School Board and committee member Paul Jensen said.

Other questions, which likely will be fleshed out upon further review and discussion, include the extent of sanitizing and the amount of cleaning performed during the day, when children are in the schools.

Further discussion on the topic is anticipated at a future Personnel and Finance Committee meeting. Ultimate approval would be made by the full School Board.