Let's outsource all the admins at the Taj and see how they like it! Go back to Rockford!

This is really going to help the custodial cause?
They all need to start looking for a new job!

Quote Labute..."Administrators salaries are contractually guarunteed, and can not be reduced...". (From the last board meeting of the whole)

Meaning their exact pay is spelled out in each contract. Can not be reduced.

But the teacher, support staff, and custodians do not have their exact dollar figures spelled out. So just reduce the pay schedule, and reducing their salaries is much much easier.

Conclusion: The only way to reduce staff pay roll is by reducing the amount paid to teachers, support staff, and custodians. Admin. staff can not be touched.

Yet another perk of this administration.

upnorth......... With all due respect, you have no idea concerning the overall situation in SW Florida! Either that or you a a person without a heart, so I am attempting to give you the benifit of the doubt and thinking you are just clueless!
Many of these people have some years in the District behind them including depending on benifits. If they are hired by a private company they will not make enough to even get by! Is that our problem? YES IT IS! We are a community that does not need to put a bandaide on one issue to make another issue even a larger problem! In addition when all the "add ons" are paid in addition to the contract we will save next to nothing and run the possibility of losing!
It is getting old listening to all these up north tranplanted know it alls think they are our salvation! LET THEM EAT CAKE AND MOVE BACK UP NORTH IF THINGS ARE SO PERFECT UP THERE!
Now tell me about my spelling errors as that is all some know about anyway!

If outsourcing will save money it obviously means the new people would work harder or faster or the ones we have now don't put enough energy into their jobs. I have seen custodians work at several of our schools, some are good workers but too many go at a pace I would not accept if I was the employer.

If this guy pays $7,000 in real estate taxes each year as a custodian he seems to be living way above his means!!!

OOPS
7M/year taxes? That would mean his house is worth at least $700,000. Too rich for my blood.

Now the Teamsters come out of the woodwork. Where have they been all this time?

The outsourced workers probably wouldn't be living in Collier County on the wages a contract private employer would pay and while as a taxpayer desiring lower taxes, I would think that savings derived from lower pay should apply across the board from the lowest ranking employee to the Board Supt. and if contracts restrict immediate pay reductions, then future contracts should be reduced to take into account the overpayments and further reduce future rates of pay.

That would be fair wouldn't it and would result in an overall savings to the District.

Don't forget- the Baker fireworks start at 3 PM today channel 22 ( Comcast). I'll bet my next paycheck the vote is UNANIMOUS in favor of settlement!

10 to 1 odds the custodians will end up keeping their jobs. Now that they've been shaken up and tasted the impending doom, I'm sure those of them that were dragging their heels will be doing a bang up job from now on.

Let them stay! Let them stay! Let them stay! Let them

Hey Pines. This is not all about dead presidents. The schools are filthy and nobody can motivate your union to do anything about it. So, you stuck it to yourself. This is about accountability. If outsource companies cannot fulfill contract they lose it.

Give the new companies a chance to submit their bids. If they in fact do come up with millions in savings, how can you not use them? It's the way businesses are run. It's too bad about the regular janitors, but we're paying their salaries, and some of us can't keep paying someone just because they need the money. We all need the money we make.

Dennis Thompson needs to take a paycut so the school custodians and others can make a living. or send him back, POWER TO THE WORKERS.!!!!!

http://webs.rps205.com/district/files...

Follow this link to Rockford school board meeting minutes documenting dissatisfaction with GCA services as far back as 2006. Board members acknowledge lack of cleanliness in schools. Parents report ESE students being used to clean classes.

How much of a kickback does GCA pay to superintendents?

A contract of this size should go out for bid through a Request for Proposal procedure.

Taxpayers, are you paying attention or just paying taxes?

upnorth: go back

There is an RFP out there with over 15 companies on the list. GCA is just one of them

OMG............. How could anyone not realize they have to open it for bids! GCA is a done deal if they do it!

teachtrouble, nope not a done deal. Just ask the Dixie Chicks.

Look, who says 250 people are going to lose their jobs?. You think a new company is going to relocate 250 employees to take their jobs here?. It does'nt work that way. In the private enterprise sector, you compete for the business at hand. Many of these people worth their salt will be hired by the new company and keep their jobs. Oh, and I'm no Thompson or Dixie chick fan either.

Raise funds from outside sources! See my website listing 4 ways to raise more money for CCPS.

www.dooley08.com

Dooley for School Board

I'm watching the school board meeting right now and folks- Thompson is tooooooooooooooooo slick for me! Some teacher's husband asked about emails he has sent to Thompson with no replies and Thompson says he never got the emails . The gentleman said he has copies of the emails and the address he sent them to. Again- Thompson is way toooooooooooooooo slick for me!

As a taxpayer, I too would like to think it's a no brainer decision to outsource, especially if the job can be done cheaper and more efficiently. Having said that though, no one should make the mistake of thinking for even a second that any fiscal savings realized as a result of outsourcing custodial services will be passed on to the taxpayer. In contrast, if history repeats itself as it often does, it would appear as though there might be just enough saved to hire another top notch educator from Rockford.

Therefore, I say keep the system as it is now and demand that the powers that be become more proficient with their custodial duties.

Reading all the posts makes me chuckle... First, please keep Thompson down there, we can't afford him in Rockford. No matter how many bids there will be GCA WILL get the contract and those people will lose their jobs. I have yet to see one comment regarding the law firm overseeing this. I'm willing to bet my snow blower the initials are probably H&C. The savings might be slight on the books, but the increased costs to your district will engulf those savings several times over as they have in IL... You WILL get what you pay for. Theft is rampant, as is poor performance. They will not lift a finger to make even the smallest repair as it is not in their contract. Even requests for included services fall on deaf ears as many claim they do not understand English. I speak Spanish as well as English so it's not so hard on me to deal with these people. If you are lucky enough to get a good one, they don't last long due to the low pay. Confront Thompson on any issue regarding this and watch how red his ears get with rage. This man has serious anger issues and is vengeful. I still have pictures of the filthy conditions once the in-house custodians were gone a year. I feel Ms.Hayes is an asset and Tim Kutz will be a fine addition next year, but all in all I'm glad Thompson moved on. I say this with a child in school here and a worker not touched by his lethal hand. These are all simply my humble opinion. Don't let him ruin your buildings, it didn't work here and I doubt he's gotten any better at it. He will bully the Board to make this happen.

Blue tongue....you have NO idea! I heard on our local radio station that Thompson is doing the same thing to you in FL that he did in Rockford. Not only will most of your custodians NOT be hired by the new company; the CLEANING COMPANY employees that he replaces them with will make minimum wage and have no benefits. After custodians, Thompson will cut your building engineering staff to a handful of people to oversee all engineering type jobs in all of your schools. Thompson will do more damage to your school system than any hurricane could ever do!

The turnover of employees with the cleaning company we now have is constant and the buildings are filthy.

Were Chico and Paco there?

BignRich, from the above link to the Rockford Board minutes:

"Mr. Hoffman commented that a lot of comparisons are being made at this time when the average experience time for the previous custodians was 14.6 years, and the GCA people are new to the district. The learning curve in this large district is long."

also, from the minutes of jan. '06:

"He reminded the Board of the difficulty with background checks in the beginning but has noticed a higher level of custodial staff stability in recent weeks. In response to Mr. Williams, Mr. Hoffman stated that because of the seasonality involved in the different duties expected from the custodians, he felt that the learning curve would be at least one year."

this is an interesting link to our current situation. something more current would be better. but that is alot of work that our School Board should be doing.

My daughter, a school district employee for 10 years, is now worrying how she pay her bills WHEN the outsourcing begins.

Come on, the superintendant 'praises' the company on their website?

Something screams conflict of interest.

Let's outsource the school board. They also cost waaay too much and when I see them, they're always sitting on their bottoms behind computer screens.

Whatever happened to 'working managers'?

It has always been my lifes ambition to be a custodian...

"We find it's always better to fire people on a Friday. Studies have statistically shown that there's less chance of an incident if you do it at the end of the week."

After your custodians are replaced with minimum wage paid cleaning crews; Dr. Thompson will turn your school district into socioeconomical zones and then all the kids who are now in schools structured to learn will be turned topsy turvy and they'll be separated from lifelong friends forced to go to a different school to balance the district economically. The "good" kids will get bullied so much that they'll be afraid to attend school and the bullies will grow into gangs and they'll start fights with other students and even the teachers. You'll have more kids expelled in the first year Thompson institutes this plan than you've had in the entire history of your school system. We're in the middle of our first year of his wonderful plan here and I'm afraid for the students every day. My kids aren't to the middle school age yet but I'm pretty sure by the time they get to that age where this plan began (middle school and high schools were zoned) that we'll be pulling our kids out to attend private school. I'd rather pay extra (on top of the 1800.00 of our 3500.00 property tax bill that goes to RPS205...and we only own a 100,000.00 house!) to have our kids in a safe environment.

So, instead of having people of extraordinary character like Leo and Anna Pozo working in the schools we are going to have an armada of changing faces working for the lowest possible wage. The superintendent is willing to overlook the constant turn over and the obvious risks, all to save a few bucks for cash strapped Naples on the Gulf. Ridiculous. No, it's obscene. Janitorial staff do more than mop floors. They interact with students, staff and parents on a daily basis. They become part of each school's extended family. And currently each of them also goes through an extensive background check.
Now Collier wants to cut some corners, quite probably at the expense of its children. Poor maintenence and sloppy background checks are an invitation to liability.

Dr. Thompson was recently quoted as saying that we aren't in the business of cleaning schools, we are in the business of educating kids, right? So....I'm wondering if the football coaches will be outsourced, too?

Tsaot...I guess you are too good to take a job below your lofty standards. People that work in the service industry are some of the most hard working family orientated I know.Get off your high horse.
Most of our custodians work their arses off and do way more than just cleaning. My school is very clean considering how the kids trash it on a daily basis.
Mr.Thompson is doing our largest employer in the county wrong and is hurting the heart of our community.How he sleeps at night is beyond me...

Thompson is selective with regard to whom he responds - if it is in his best interest he MAY take the time, if not, then he "forgets" or just doesn't receive it - Hmmmmmm... how funny is that?

By threatening to banish the janitorial staff, Thompson appears to have lost sight of one of the fundamental purposes of government..... that being providing employment for those unsuitable elsewhere.

Rosari Peraza sanchez navardo, what I am suppose to do if I lose my job? Maybe paddle back to CUBA!Gee,I have 3 social secuity cards, I hope my new employer won't find out about them. School good, no background checks, use too many names!
We come here for the benefits, and we hardly have to do any work for them. I just got a new, free computer, how will I work it without electricity? America no good, what happened to all my free things?
No work today, standing on picket lines drinking beer all day. I got paid for it too! Americans dumb! Upnorth no good,people too smart. Like sunshine anyway, rednecks good people, have education like us! We people too, so help us.

Too bad the TV audience at home never gets to see the faces of Thompson and the Dixie Chicks during School Board Meetings. Today was priceless!

When the gentleman started talking about Dr T's lack of response concerning his wife's transfer, Dr. T was making the most ridiculous face while mouthing "NO" and shaking his head toward Attorney Withers across the room. Apparently Withers was napping because Dr T couldn't get his attention, so finally he abandoned his mime act and broke in himself asking for a "ruling" from Withers.
Then Withers spouted off some some ramble about the man's wife not being in the union but then caught himself and said no matter, all teachers are represented by the union. Then he shut up and the man finished his complaint to the Board.

What a joke. If this weren't costing us all a fortune and the loss of our reputation as a strong school system, it would be hysterically funny.

The janitorial services will be contracted out to Thompson's buddies and then surely subcontracted out to another just like Kraft Construction has done at Lee County jail. And just like the jail subcontactor knowingly hiring ILLEGALS without proper background checks or documentation, the same scenario could play out with not only ILLEGAL workers, but PEDOPHILES within striking distance of our innocent children!!! It would be like a self-serve buffet for PEDOPHILES!!!

rahga,
i dont know what the custodians were like at your school, but none of them have EVER made an effort to talk to me. The few times I needed to approach them to ask for electrical cords or whatever it became a huge task, trying to guess what extention cord was in spanish. Another instance was when twenty minutes after school I was walking to the locker room to go to practice and I was yelled at for walking the only way to the locker room because the floors were just moped. There is no daily interaction with parents. Whatever is cheaper for the district should be the decision. Sorry the country is in a recession right now, but whats cheaper must be done. After adequate research of course.

2 janitors living in a $ 678,157.00 home? Esta loco man! Mr. Pozo get ready to flee Naples too.

After a homicide of an illegal Kraft sub-contractor at Collier County Courthouse last month and 25 illegal subcontracted employees arrested by Feds at Lee County Kraft/Spectrum Construction project yesterday, what is being done by our Collier County Commissioners & attorney to exclude illegal from working on Collier County property? If Wal-Mart is fined by the Feds for subcontractor’s use of illegal janitors, what prevents the Feds from fining Collier County for subcontracting with janitorial & construction company’s use of illegals?
Let’s make illegal immigration a local issue!

Lely09, have you met Leo Pozo? I have he would never treat you that way. He is an articulate, caring man who speaks fluent English. Your experiences are unfortunate, but they do not reflect my experience in more than 20 years in education in three states. You may think these people are simply part of the wall paper, but they interact with the school community in many ways. Let me ask you this, have you ever thanked a janitor for cleaning your room. Try it. It's amazing how most people respond when it becomes clear you are willing to extend them some dignity.

Up North, the Jose Jimenez immitation is simply offensive. Especially when we are talking about people of such obvious deep character such as the Pozos. I doubt you will believe me. That is your perogative. But please, after posting something like that, do not tell us you are untainted by bigotry.

Zeitgeist - Those $600,000+ homes that the janitors live in are no doubt products of the real estate boom of previous where we ALL saw our property values triple in a very short period of time. Those homes were probably purchased prior to that for less than $200,000!

That aside, I think every effort should be made to perform thorough background checks on EVERY person that is employed by, works at, and/or volunteers at our schools. Providing a SAFE environment for OUR children is critical, expected, and required!!!

We do not need another Mark Branson, Nelson Faerber, and/or Joshua Grotberg PREYING upon our children!!!

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2006/o...

http://www.abc-7.com/articles/readnew...

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2006/j...

rahga,
They may be the exception rather than the rule. Before I retired, I had the pleasure to work with many custodians. Some were good workers and they cared, some were not. The ones that were not and had a bad attitude were reflected in the response they received from our staff. Some were worthy of a thank you. The good old boys in facilities need to be replaced. Custodians need to be trained properly. They also need to be courteous.

Only thing left to do, is keep the custodians, even though the teachers really don't think they do that great of job anyway and give a 4% paycut to the staff to keep them? Oh boy, HERE WE GO!

Did you know that another word for custodian is "Maid"

Ragah, If I sound like a bigot your right! especially when it comes to some of these custodians. Pozo, if Anna is the wife of Leo, I have plenty to say about her. She has been at 4 different schools, forced transfered twice! She is overweight, about 400 pounds, late for work EVERYDAY! Cleaning complaints up the wazoo from the teachers, written up 4 times for insubordination, watches TV about 4 hours a night! Very nice person until you ask her to clean something. NEED MORE EXAMPLES OF MY BIGOTRY?

I have to laugh...the schools are not clean enough but we are going to hire back the same custodians?
Great idea. Do you really think the schools will be cleaner? I work in a corporate building and the cleaning staff here barely does anything, but take out trash and maybe if your lucky spray a cleaner in the toilet. I have been in the bathroom at my son's school it is very clean and he is in 1st grade. Also what effect will this have on our economy? We will now have 250 families without insurance. We have enough uninsured in Collier County why not add some more. The whole idea stinks. Let the little people be the scape goat for the mistakes of others. Very Sad!

WOW,
Can we do a public information request and get this documented?

To all Collier County residents. Please do not let Dennis Thompson ruin your school district too. Outsourcing custodians in Rockford was one of the biggest mistakes ever. Our schools used to be clean and students and parents took pride in attending classes and events knowing custodians took their responsiblities seriously. The custodians are more than workers they are integral parts of a well functioning school.
I believe, his brilliant zoning plan for middle and high schools has led to the highest number of fights and suspensions ever with students being arrested.
Thanks alot Thompson. So glad to see you are someone else's problem.

Thank you Dejavu. I also wrote to their forum to make the same points. Seems to me though in the fall when this all went down that the comments on this board were all teasing us Rockfordians saying that we were just sour grapes because we were losing such a great leader and that FL was gaining one. Not sour grapes folks! We just speak from experience and from the short time Thompson was here; he has left a legacy of problems for years to come. The middle and high schools were zoned and now we have more behavior problems than ever before and in the dirtest schools we've ever had. Wow! I almost forgot about this one. Thompson also authorized one of our high school principals to change failing grades to "D"s and now there's a lawsuit over that. Good luck Florida!

Outlaw outsourcing. How about Thompson and his cronies take a pay cut?

Maddog..it will be just the opposite. When Thompson was here and we had a HUGE deficit; he first cut the custodians and then suggested that he and the Dixie Chicks get a pay raise and the board approved it. Seems he has a pattern that he just continues in each city he works in. You would be wise to cut your losses now before he gets too imbedded in your district.

And a private custodial service would more than likely hire ILLEGALS who will be near your children and potentially fondling them.

?
Who are the Dixie Chicks?