School board votes down outsourcing custodial services

PALMER — More than two hours into Wednesday evening's Mat-Su Borough School District's regular board meeting, the crowd erupted into applause following a vote not to award a more than $4.8 million, three-year contract to NANA Management Services for custodial services.

The board heard from about a dozen individuals on potential budget cuts under consideration as the district continues to wrangle with unknown funding sources as its June 30 deadline to approve a balanced budget nears. Privatizing the service was expected to provide of the largest savings in the at least $11 million deficit. But when the question came, the issue failed on a 4-3 vote.

Prior to making a decision, board president Donna Dearman gave each trustee a chance, if they desired, to make a statement on the issue. Dearman prefaced the others stating the task had been "extremely daunting for each of us" and that it had been a challenge that weighed heavily on every board members.

"This is not a decision taken lightly," Dearman said.

Trustee Sarah Welton, who voted against the resolution, said she was school board president the first time the district outsourced custodial services. She said she voted no despite the final outcome.

"There's a lot of pain in this. It comes down to the school board is squeezed and it comes down to the administration is squeezed without having any information," said Welton. "We are the richest state in the union I've been told. I believe we have the money. We have chosen not to invest it in our educational system...through the people we have elected. This is what it comes down to."

Fighting back tears as she spoke, she questioned whether privatization of custodial services is a stepping-stone to privatizing the rest of the school district. She said, if approved, the district would be outsourcing jobs to a profit-making organization.

"We are still making guesses, we don't know. How can we make decisions without out the knowledge," Welton said.

She agreed the first time the district outsourced custodial services as it entered the new millennium, there were problems.

"But not as bad as everyone was saying...not everyone was adverse to it,” Welton said.

Fellow board member Kelsey Trimmer began by saying he pumps septic tanks for a living so he doesn't look down on anyone. He said no matter how the outsourcing decision turned out, there will be job losses in the district. He encouraged everyone to remain passionate about the topic regardless of the vote, and demand satisfaction from their state legislators and borough assembly.

Trustee Debby Retherford said she felt confident that the district learned of and corrected problems associated with the first custodial outsourcing. She was uncomfortable with the fact that if approved, the outfit providing the service was making a profit. Retherford said there will be consequences either way and she was unsure if the community would be happy with either outcome. She said she personally felt there wasn't a right or wrong answer.

"Maybe we have been too good of soldiers by tightening our belts," Retherford said.

She said there are no idle hands here at the district office for those who felt administration cuts could be made with little impact on operations. Instead, Retherford admonished the, "I am angry...either you do this or we lose teachers. It's not really either this or that...this lies at (returning legislators' feet). They've not put together fiscal plan..."

Trustee Ray Michaelson said the picture had become, "extremely clear to me...in the past eight weeks or more. I understand the gravity of the situation we have in the state of Alaska."

He said the budget has been a slow-moving train for the last couple years due to the stubborn inaction of some who haven't had the foresight or planning. Michaelson said such action would surely go a long way adding the board was literally forced to make this decision.

Board member Ole Larson focused his comments on finances chastising Juneau for not funding education at levels that keep up with inflation.

"We have not kept up at all with our expenses. We've been using our reserves to help with a soft landing,” said Larson.

He said the district has tried to make that clear to both legislators and the borough assembly for the past five years.

"We finally ran out of our reserves,” Larson said. “The next three years I don't see any difference...we're losing $2.5-3 million each year. Glad to hear there are a lot of people at the borough assembly...We only manage money, we can't raise it."

Dearman looked out into the audience, which contained many of the individuals facing layoffs, and told them they were not expendable.

"We're in a corner. What do we do?...I don't know that answer. The sad reality is in a couple days, most of the members of this board are waiting to get that email that the governor has signed that bill saying we will be hit with another five percent (per pupil reimbursement rate)...we can't raise taxes. We can't have bake sales what do we do?" queried Dearman making a passionate plea. "Please know this is weighing on every one of us heavily. This is most difficult decision I've had to make since I've become a member of this board."

With that the question was called and defeated with Michaelson, Larson and Dearman voting in favor of the motion. After the vote and before taking a short recess, Dearman spoke again.

"I'm going to ask you to do something. When you start seeing pennies laying around, pick them and give them to (assistant superintendent Luke) Mr. Fulp...we're going to need them.”

Several board members continued commenting on the topic near the end of the almost 3 ½ hour meeting. Larson said he was concerned with the fact that as the current school year ends and the district faces a resolution to its financial woes, there will be much less participation because of summer break.

"I wish we had more assistance from two governing bodies that give us finances. We've asked the Senate and House to help us manage these cuts not gotten any assistance," said Larson.

Welton said a concerted community effort to contact state legislators and borough assemblymen should allow the district to move from begging for money and being happy with what it's thrown to at least meeting its needs and maybe adding a little extra.

"It's an investment. If you don't have healthy schools, you will not have healthy communities," Welton concluded.

Dearman concluded the meeting stating it is just the beginning and everyone must be more energized than ever before.

"We have to. The albatross is still in the room and we have to figure out a way to get it out of the room,” Dearman said. “I remain positive and I know this school district is going to survive. We are going to find a way to survive and survive we will and continue to deliver the best we can given what we have to work with.”