School Superintendent O'Malley has prepared a Powerpoint presentation on his proposed budget for 2010-11. Besides his plan to one way or another send more than six dozen of our district staff packing, O'Malley sees no choice but to cut a large swath through the remaining teachers' benefits and budgets for training and supplies. The superintendent hasn't been exactly nurturing his relationship with our teachers, but now he's looking to put many of them on the street and leave the rest with huge class loads and no light at the end of the tunnel. And I'm sure our janitors will find life as outsourced commodities about as difficult to bear as our seemingly huge savings of $1.2 million in two years would seem to suggest. That big chunk of change has to come from somewhere. O'Malley will say it derives from efficiencies but more likely it will come out of our soon-to-be former janitors' proverbial hides.
This faceoff between O'Malley and the teachers has been coming for a while. The end result of O'Malley's gambit is none too certain at this point. Watch the wheels begin to move. This will get ugly fast.
Outsourcing the custodians is projected to save $500,000 this upcoming year and $700,000 - $1,000,000 every year after that.
ReplyDeleteSince resources are finite, outsourcing the custodians will save over 10 teaching positions.
By the way, we'll need to continue outsourcing additional staff next year to offset expected salary increases, benefits, and funding shortfalls.