Woodbridge school custodians to become municipal employees; mayor touts savings

by Sergio Bichao on Jun 18th | Email

Woodbridge custodians

The Woodbridge school board has approved a shared service agreement that would make school custodians municipal employees.

WOODBRIDGE, NJ -- Most of the district’s 99 custodians next year will still be sweeping the halls and trimming the hedges at the township’s 24 schools. But instead of answering to schools Superintendent John Crowe, their new boss will be Mayor John E. McCormac.

The Board of Education on Thursday approved a $4.7 million shared services agreement with the township that will turn over school custodial services to the municipal public works department.

The township will hire most of the custodians and use township employees to plow snow, which the district has paid outside contractors to do. The agreement has to be approved by the Township Council.

The deal is expected to save the school district nearly $2.1 million on salary and benefits costs while being “budget neutral” on the municipal level, according to district officials and McCormac, who detailed the agreement during the school board’s special meeting.

The move was prompted by a $12 million reduction in the budget the school board adopted in March after Gov. Chris Christie proposed cutting state aid to Woodbridge schools by 33 percent, or $8.7 million. Voters in April defeated the budget’s tax levy resulting in another $1 million cut.

Custodians were among the 280 employees the district proposed outsourcing or eliminating. Last month the district hired Chartwells Educational Dining Services to take over the school cafeterias and its 50 employees. That deal is projected to save the district $500,000 a year.

In agreeing to McCormac’s custodial staff proposal, the board passed over a $4.1 million bid by the Philadelphia-based Aramark. McCormac said the township’s plan “looks higher but when you look at the full budgetary impact it looks the same,” because the township would plow snow and the district will likely save about $500,000 on unemployment insurance. McCormac said fewer custodians would pass an opportunity to keep generous health benefits and stay on a pension plan.

While the agreement means custodial jobs will be safe from privatization, the mayor’s proposal was not met with applause by the custodians in attendance.

McCormac would not say during the meeting how much custodians would earn as township employees but the tentative plans calls for the employees to earn less than the lowest step on their salary scale as school employees. Custodians currently earn between $32,000 to $47,000 while supervisors earn $52,000 to $58,000.

While all custodians currently work full-time, just 50 of them will have that opportunity as township employees while about 40 more will work part-time. The township’s residency requirement also means about 20 custodians who don’t live in Woodbridge will most likely lose their jobs.

The township will also cut back on overtime by making weekends part of regular shifts.

The township will use the school district’s maintenance equipment.

The board approved the agreement by a vote of 5-0-2, with board president Brian Small and member Judith Leidner absent and abstentions by Brian Molnar, a township employee, and Lawrence Miloscia, a relative of a district custodian.

MORE: Woodbridge township and school district have been $aving by sharing