Jani-King Out, Interstate Maintenance In

The Spring-Ford Area School District's board of education unanimously approved a mutual agreement to end a two-year contract between outsourced janitorial company Jani-King and the district at Tuesday night's regular meeting. The board also unanimously agreed on the approval to enter into a contract with Interstate Maintenance Corporation for district cleaning services.

"It was just a mutual agreement," said Superintendent David Goodin. "The bottom line is, their company has taken a tremendous amount of heat. We've certainly taken a lot of heat. Both parties felt it was time to go our separate ways. I don't think the company we hired tonight was even in the mix last year. But they are this year."

The board made the decision to lay off 29 employees one year ago in favor of Jani-King and has been under a microscope publically on the issue ever since. At the last meeting, Board President Tom DiBello said the district had realized approximately $875,000 in savings for the year. That was before that Jani-King reportedly walked out on the job.

"They will not be used for the rest of the year," Goodin said. "I'm not sure if it's as much walked out as both parties were negotiating the fact that we were going to walk away from this and we said 'If you're going to walk away from it, then walk away from it.'"

Goodin said he is confident that the system of using a contracted service for maintenance can work.

"It's a cost-savings measure and we've got a year of trial and error," said Goodin. "We'll be much more effective this year in defining roles and understanding those roles. As far as the reasoning, it was pretty much a mutual agreement. It's time for us to part."

Interstate Maintenance Corporation's contract with the district is a one-year contract with a 30-day termination clause, according to the board agenda. The agenda also states "Monthly costs shall not exceed $51,248 or a yearly total of $614,976. Any additional work requested by the district will be billed on an hourly basis, as per the contract. Funding will be paid from the Maintenance Budget."

According to the company's website, "Interstate has been servicing Class “A” office buildings, medical and educational facilities for many of our original customers since 1988."

The website also says the company currently services "several million square feet of cleanable office space with a full-time staff of experienced management and personal supervision."

Interstate serves the tri-state area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. The corporate office is located in Jamison, Bucks County. Its Montgomery County office is in Horsham.

"I like the fact they are not a franchise," Goodin said. "We know the owner, we've met the owner. The owner lives right in our area. They certainly have the staffing necessary to cover our district. It's been a growing process through this whole thing through this year."

Goodin reiterated the fact that despite public concern for local job preservation, former employees cannot be hired back at this time.

"I know people say they want to bring back our old employees, but we've already budgeted in those savings," he said. "We're realizing those savings. We can't put that back into the budget. To me, it's a good compromise. What's interesting to me is nobody's ever said anything about the other contracted services we use. Our busing for example, we don't have our own busing. We contract that service out. Nobody even questions it. There's a growing process that's involved. Some people have lost their jobs, I understand that. I've said to the board all along, my goal is to protect the instructional core, the main mission. This is how we do it."

During the public comment section of the meeting, Kathy Bryant of Upper Providence asked why the solicitor had not read the contract between the new company and the district after the many issues that occurred last year with Jani-King.

Goodin explained that the terms of the contract were "pretty straight forward."

"I undrestand it completely," he said. "I understand the terms, the conditions, the service levels. I've been doing this for a while. If I had a question about the contract, I'd be certain to run it by the solicitor."

An email was forwarded to Patch by an anonymous reader that explained to the staff that allegedly there would be no janitorial service for the next nine days. However, Goodin confirmed after Tuesday night's meeting that Interstate Maintenance starts today.

"We're going to get her going tomorrow," Goodin concluded.

Related Stories