Vote on transfer of Malden custodians from School Dept. to Public Facilities set for council meeting on June 3

Rally at Malden Government Center set for 6:30 PM

Malden's school custodians -- who are fighting to save quality services and local jobs – anticipate a second vote on June 3 regarding a proposal to transfer oversight of their jobs from the School Dept. to the Public Facilities Dept. 

The proposal made by Councillor Neil Kinnon narrowly lost by a 5 to 6 vote at the May 27 council meeting.  However, Councillor Steve Ultrino filed a "motion to reconsider" his no vote on May 28.  If his motion for reconsideration passes on June 3, it will re-open the discussion and bring the ordinance back before the Council just as it was the moment before the vote was taken.

A number of city councilors have said returning the school custodians to the city's Public Facilities department won't provide needed improvement with school cleanliness.  But the real problem isn't which department supervises the custodians; it's the lack of promised supervisors and evaluation as well as skimping on the necessary budget to get the job done right.

Two years ago, when Mayor Christenson moved the custodians to the School Dept., the city put in writing that there would be increased supervision and hold regular evaluations.  But the School Dept. never properly managed the work nor provided adequate staffing.  Only one custodian was written up and no performance reviews were ever done.  Either way, management under both Public Facilities and the School Dept. failed to do what they promised. 

In addition to transferring oversight of the school custodians to Public Facilities, Councillor Kinnon has also proposed reducing the School Dept. budget by $1,371,285 (an amount equivalent to the total allocation for school custodial services) and increasing the appropriation to Public Facilities by $1,371,285 to allow for the supervision and oversight of the school custodians.  Finally, Councillor Kinnon proposed that the Mayor increase the appropriation to Public Facilities by $600,000 to adequately fund school maintenance activities.

Data provided by Councillor Kinnon shows that the overall Malden school budget grew by about 27% between 2002 and 2012; yet the custodial budget has remained completely flat during the same period.  And while the number of children attending Malden schools has increased by 25% since 2002, the number of custodians has actually declined from 42 in 2007 to just 28 in 2014. 

Simply put, the custodians have been asked to do more with far less personnel.  The national standard for custodial spending as a percentage of cost per student is 3.1%.  Meanwhile spending per student in Malden has declined from 3.3% in 2002 to just 2.0% in 2013 to 2.4% in 2014.   The current School Dept. proposal is a measly 1.7% for 2015!