| Faced with increasing
costs and frozen state revenues, the Troy Board of Education
voted Tuesday to award bids for its custodial and food service
programs.
The board authorized the district superintendent to negotiate
contracts with Enviro-Clean to provide custodial services
and Sodexo. to provide food service operations, beginning
on July 1, 2009.
The decision to change custodial services could potentially
save the Troy School District approximately $6 million over
the next three years and an estimated $1.5 million for food
services over the next five years. Under the agreement with
both companies, current employees would be given the opportunity
to retain their positions. The District is modifying the agreements
to ensure that current food service employees receive their
current wage rate and that custodial employees receive a premium
above the proposed pay rate. The estimated savings reflect
these requested changes in compensation.
“Like all other Michigan school districts, the Troy
School District must make painful decisions to balance its
budget for the next school year,” said Superintendent
Dr. Barbara Fowler. “The District continues to explore
every avenue where costs can be reduced to ensure that resources
protect our classrooms as much as possible during this difficult
economy.”
The Board’s decision follows a four-month process where
the District reviewed issues related to quality, safety, cost
savings and impact on current staff. The District also met
with the union representing the support staff to address cost
savings that could have avoided a change in services.
Following Tuesday’s Board decision, representatives
from both companies began to meet with current employees.
In addition to food service and transportation, the Board
of Education also voted in April to award a contract to First
Student Services, Inc. for its transportation services. At
this time, 85 percent of the current transportation employees
have applied to retain their positions.
“We understand that change is difficult, and we are
committed to making this transition as easy as possible for
our current staff,” Fowler said.
All Michigan schools district continue to struggle with frozen
and declining funding from the State of Michigan. Since 2002,
the Troy School District has made more than $42 million in
adjustments to offset shortfall in school funding.
Recently, the State of Michigan held a revenue estimating
conference and warned local school districts that the deficit
in the school aid fund could reach $959 million by 2010-2011
- or $590 per pupil. For Troy, the cut in per pupil would
mean an annual loss of $7 million.
In addition to changes in the custodial, food service and
transportation programs, the Board of Education is considering
an additional $3.7 million in reductions that cross all areas
of the school district.
More information regarding the District’s 2009-2010
budget is available on line at: http://www.troy.k12.mi.us/about/finance/index.htm.
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