NEW GLOUCESTER – SAD 15 will hire people to clean its three elementary schools, replacing a Kittery firm.
On Wednesday, the school board learned that Wilson 5, a private cleaning company, will no longer clean Russell, Dunn and Memorial elementary schools after March 1. A letter to release the district from the contract was recently signed.
Four district supervisors and administrators met Tuesday with the company to review cleanliness and ongoing concerns based on teacher complaints that the company was not providing adequate service, Superintendent Victoria Burns said.
This marks the sixth company to be dropped by the district since 1996, she said.
“The companies can’t meet the service needs for students and staff,” Burns said.
Wilson 5 General Manager James Woodman said Friday that school officials are to blame for the shortened contract.
“The people in charge of administering the contract weren’t interested in making the contract work,” he said. “There was a conflict of interest in the maintenance department,” citing the SAD 15 maintenance director being married to the head custodian at Memorial School. And, he said, “We were being sabotaged by the day custodians.”
Woodman also said the district’s unions were at odds over the threat of losing their jobs because of an outside contractor.
“We were given four days notice from when the contract was signed to get going,” Woodman said. His firm began the evening cleaning job in December.
The company provided four employees initially and added a fifth in January.
The first year contract with SAD 15 was negotiated at $214,620, which included the company providing all cleaning equipment and supplies.
He said since the company was founded in 1982, it has never had a contract dropped for poor performance.
Wilson 5 was incorporated in Maine in 1984 to provide custodial and janitorial services, facilities operation service, facilities engineering and mechanical maintenance to public and private sectors throughout the country through offices based in Maine, Florida, Missouri and New York.
Burns is proposing the district hire six or seven people to clean the schools. She said she will bring a proposal to the March 2 board meeting.
Terrance Towle, director of Finance and Operations for the district, said a plan is in the works to provide manpower to work with Wilson 5 until March 1.
The cleaning positions have been advertised and a committee will interview nine candidates from a pool of 25. The pay will be $11.19 per hour.
Towle’s initial estimate for labor through the end of school year is $51,966. And roughly $20,000 is earmarked to buy equipment.
The current contract costs $17,885 a month.
In other business, a community forum on the 2005-06 budget development drew one member from the public and 14 administrators.
The proposed budget will be unveiled March 2 at an all-day public workshop at 9 a.m. at Memorial School in New Gloucester.
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