Question 5 for School Board Candidates: Will You Outsource Work?

Would consider outsourcing support staff or teachers, if legislation makes it possible? Tell us why, or why not.

David Friese

Regardless of state legislation I’m totally opposed to the outsourcing of support staff or teachers. We have one of the top rated school districts in the state and country. Our success is directly related to the dedication and professionalism of the district’s employees. Outsourcing of these services will only bring about the demise of the greatness that currently exists. 

David Holden

I do not advocate privatizing support staff functions. The support staff has given concessions over the last five years and they are market competitive. The majority of support staff live within the district and are part of the fabric of our community. We want to know the bus driver we entrust our children’s safety to. We want to know the janitor in the building when our children are there after normal school hours.

The privatizing teachers portion of this question is hypothetical and moot. The move for privatizing teachers legislation was killed before reaching a vote by both parties in Lansing. It is unlikely to be an issue today, tomorrow, and well beyond my length of service on the board.

Patti Tanner

“Outsourcing” is a business term. Schools are not businesses, nor should they ever be run like one. We have quality teachers in Saline and outstanding support staff at every level, we want to keep those people, they are members of the community who have served us well. We can negotiate with employees to keep privatization out of Saline. Last year we were able to work out a deal with our bus drivers, who took a significant pay cut to stay with the district so we didn’t need to go with an outside source and keep our kids on buses with people they know.

David Zimmer

This a very interesting question because your question implies that we will change our state laws to make the way for privatization of our teachers, so let me talk to the practical consideration of outsourcing our support staff.

The question of whether outsourcing of support staff makes sense must be answered in the context of the community where this matter is being considered. For a community such as Saline, I believe that over 95 percent of our support staff live in Saline or the immediate townships that make up the Saline Area Schools district.

We all know that when a person is laid off, the impact is far beyond the one individual. The rule of thumb most people use when discussing this subject is that a person who is laid off impacts 10 other people. These people are your barber, your dentist, your cleaners, and others…so with 95 percent of our support staff living within our community; outsourcing of these support functions would not serve the interests of our community.