Custodians get pink slips at RSD

By Zoe Sullivan
Contributing Writer

“I have a real family, and I need a real job.” Michelle Simms worked for the Orleans Parish School Board before the storm. She was one of those who lost her job in its aftermath, but, she says, she was invited to work with the firm that was contracted to do the maintenance and custodial work in the city’s public schools. Simms has been working with Sodexo, that firm, since then.

In late February, however, Simms and her colleagues received notice that their last day would be the March 31. Simms will lose supervisory position, which pays $17 an hour and includes retirement and health benefits. “I’m going to have to spend money to put my child in day care while I look for a job that will probably pay $8 an hour,” she told The Louisiana Weekly.

“Why couldn’t they wait until the end of the school year, July 1st?” asked Sherita Williams, also a custodial manager with Sodexo. “We’re there for the children,” Williams told The Louisiana Weekly, pointing out that the custodial and maintenance staff had come back to New Orleans shortly after the storm to clean out the city’s schools and get them functioning again.

“The children will talk to a janitor before they talk to a teacher,” Simms agreed, questioning the wisdom of destabilizing the school environment by changing all the custodial staff during the academic year.

Simms is one of over 100 people who will be out of work in a few weeks, and she feels her job prospects are dim. Her firm, Sodexo, will be replaced by the Pennsylvania-based company Aramark.

Asked why it was canceling the contract with Sodexo during the school year, Kizzy Payton, Director of Communications for the Recovery School District (RSD) responded in an email that the contract was not canceled. It had been signed in March of 2009 and was simply at the end of its three-year term. Additionally, Payton told The Louisiana Weekly that it had “directed Aramark to interview all existing Sodexo employees for available positions.”

In an email, Aramark spokesperson Karen Cutler told The Louisiana Weekly that “I can confirm that there will be no loss of wages or benefits.” Asked what the RSD had done to ensure good working conditions for the custodial and maintenance staff, Payton said in her email: “in the RFP [Request for Proposals] process, the Recovery School District detailed required safety conditions that must be met by the maintenance and custodial provider. This item was considered accordingly and was part of the scoring process which led to the ultimate award of the contract.”

Payton also explained that custodial and maintenance positions are no longer civil servant jobs because “we believe the award of the contract through a competitive process is best.”

This article was originally published in the March 12, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper