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CPS’ abject privatization failure

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Illinois

* September of 2014…

Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett admitted Monday that turning over management of school janitors to two private companies hasn’t been going very well. […]

In February, the Chicago Board of Education awarded two contracts, worth a total of $340 million, to two private companies, Aramark and SodexoMAGIC. These two contracts combined make it one of the largest privatization moves of any school district across the country. Under the agreements, SodexoMAGIC would oversee 33 schools, while Aramark would oversee the remaining 500-some district-run schools.

* Also from that same month…

Close to 480 custodians who work in Chicago Public Schools will be laid off by the end of the month, a district spokesman said Sunday, by a private company given authority to manage school upkeep through a multimillion-dollar contract signed in March.

* June of 2015…

For the last several months, teachers in Chicago have been doing two jobs for the price of one: instructing kids, and occasionally taking a moment to mop, scrub, or vacuum their dirty classrooms.

The extra duties are the result of a $340 million privatization boondoggle from Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Among other things, it’s resulted in the Chicago Public Schools firing hundreds of janitors.

* June of 2016…

Chicago principals, teachers and other Chicago Public Schools employees are slamming the school district’s plan to hand over more work to Aramark, the contractor whose maintenance services have sparked outrage for years.

* Also from June of 2016…

Aramark was supposed to save CPS $18 million this year. But the district understated the square footage that would need cleaning in its request for proposals, spokesman Bill McCaffrey said, at a cost of $7 million over the projected $64 million CPS expected to spend this year… Budget documents show that CPS expected to spend $64 million in the first year of the contract, but has already been billed for more than $85 million over 11 months.

* November of 2017…

A South Side elementary school did not pass a health inspection Thursday after more than 30 rodent droppings were found in the school, including in a sink where kindergarteners wash their hands. […]

The union recently surveyed members across the city and found that 43 percent of responding schools, or 171 schools, reported rodent issues. Others reported cockroaches and filthy classrooms.

* A few days ago…

The discovery of rats and rodent droppings throughout the building at Mollison Elementary School in Bronzeville and two failed health inspections there last fall prompted Chicago Public Schools officials to declare they were ordering an all-hands-on-deck series of inspections citywide.

That “blitz” was supposed to inspect 220 schools to start, CPS said. But despite initially finding that problems such as rodent droppings, pest infestations, filthy food-preparation equipment, and bathrooms that were dirty, smelly and lacked hot water, CPS quietly halted the inspections before completing them all, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show — shortly after the newspaper requested information on the early results.

CPS provided blitz reports from 125 facilities that show only 34 of those schools passed inspection by inspectors from the district’s facilities department and Aramark, the private company that manages the custodians and oversees food service. And not all of the schools that were re-inspected passed the second time around, according to hundreds of documents and photos taken at nine schools that were provided under the state’s public records act.

* And then…

Chicago Teachers Union members didn’t know until this week that CPS “rigorously inspected fewer than 20 percent of our students’ schools for cleanliness issues,” vice president Jesse Sharkey said in a statement. “The district also has no plan or strategy in place to address filth and vermin infestations in remaining schools, despite the fact that more than 70 percent of the schools it inspected failed initial inspections. That is inhumane and unacceptable.”

Sharkey also blamed the mayor for privatizing the schools as CPS “at the highest administrative levels, has clearly failed to hold its contractors accountable, instead renewing and expanding these contracts for hundreds of millions of dollars in the last two years alone. This is more than a failure of the contractors, who’ve short-staffed schools and foisted impossible working conditions on janitors and related staff.”

* Sun-Times editorial a few days ago…

You’d think a multibillion-dollar global company like Aramark, with 270,000 employees in 19 countries and a self-proclaimed “dedication to excellence backed by decades of experience,” could keep schools from becoming rat-infested dumps. […]

You’d also think that CPS would have immediately ramped up its “blitz” of 220 schools once inspectors found dirt, smells and rodents in all but 34 of the first 125 schools. Credible complaints about squalid conditions began trickling in not long after the first $340 million contract — $260 million for Aramark, $80 million for SodexoMAGIC — was approved. You’d think the district would want to know exactly, right away, how widespread and severe the problems are. […]

Professional cleaning standards seemingly don’t apply to Chicago’s public schools, especially those with black and brown students, where most of the worst problems were found. […]

Would either company dare to do such a slipshod job at schools in Wilmette, not to mention in the corporate world? If they did, they would no doubt find their latest $427 million contract, plus an additional $108 million extension, in jeopardy. Both the contract and extension were approved in January, but we’re still in the dark about the exact terms. CPS has yet to provide copies of either document, though officials are now promising to do so. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has already recommended that they be made public.

* More…

Of the 17 schools with more than $20,000 in fines, 12 serve populations where at least four of five children are African-American or Hispanic and low-income.

* From last August…

Rauner also repeatedly had pressed for relief from what he called costly state mandated rules and regulations on local school districts, including the ability to allow greater privatization that would cut into union jobs, such as janitorial services. But that was downsized to give local schools the ability to reduce physical education instruction and use private instructors for drivers’ education.

Emphasis added.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 3:15 pm

Comments

Privatization is not a panacea. Period. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong in every instance but it does mean it should be undertaken with a hell of a lot more care than it has been.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 3:20 pm
17 schools had more than $20,000 in fines? Who pays it and to whom? Seems to me the fines ought to come out of the payment to those companies who job it is to clean and not out of school funding.
Also not surprised that CPS had no idea of how many sq feet was to be cleaned.

Comment by DuPage Saint Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 3:22 pm
I wonder if Emanuel’s hand-picked, active-felon, degenerate-gambler superintendent got a taste of those contracts?

So what’s Emanuel’s excuse for not getting his disgusting and disgraceful problem fixed yet, after more than three years? It’s on him. He picks all the players.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 3:27 pm
I have been with 2 organizations that ‘outsourced’ housekeeping/custodial duties to Aramark. Both were back in house after 1 year due to the terrible performance of the company. It does horrible work, and its cost savings are typically derived from firing the existing staff, and either rehiring at a 20-40% salary reduction or finding sub-par workers willing to work for peanuts.

I’m not surprised CPS is having issues.

Comment by How Ironic Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 3:30 pm
I don’t understand: I was informed that the solution to every problem was privatization. Might conservatives have overstated the extent to which everything government is bad and everything corporate is good?

Comment by PJ Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 3:35 pm
Glad to hear those over priced teachers are finally earning their pay cancel the contract let the teachers do it

Comment by Good Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 3:37 pm
Did Aramark meet the service level obligations in the contract? Should be as simple as that.

Also, didn’t many of the union janitors get re-hired by Aramark?

Comment by City Zen Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 3:40 pm
I ran a privatized city cleaning operation overseas. We had close oversight by municipal officials. We knew that our success depended on making the municipal officials look good. As long as we performed well, they gave us some flexibility.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 3:42 pm
Hmm, I guess getting rid of public union jobs and hiring a company (that pays less to their employees) doesn’t really work very well…nor is it healthy for the students. Anecdotally, my granddaughter who attends a MAGNET school in Chicago and is doing very well (her 2nd grade class is at least on par with the 2nd grade class in my Downers Grove area and offers more extra-curricular activities/classes before and after school), but she had to have a warm hoodie in her classroom for at least November and December, because the heat wasn’t working in that part of the school…they used to have on-site HVAC/boiler staff. Nope, cut through attrition cuz we can’t afford that…but we can afford tulips on LSD and an upgrade to Navy Pier.

Comment by Union Thug Gramma Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 3:42 pm
CPS won’t release the contracts to the Public, either Rich. Hard to tell where the donations to Emanuel from Aramark came from, but Magic Johnson definitely gave $250,000 in 2015.

CTU people and facilities people tell me that Aramark and Sodexo won’t order anything either, so in addition to the schools not being clean, they are further falling into disrepair. The leaders of the unions showed that the contracts would be more expensive to the Board than having the work done in house. CPS at the time said it was cost neutral. Further, because these people are no longer employed by the board, they don’t have to live in the city.

There were also some very suspect contracts given to some groups to orchestrate the closing of the 50 schools. More money wasted so connected folks can wet their beaks. Break-ins galore.

Tim Cawley was the architect of this failure. Emanuel had a residency waiver enacted so he could take the job, even though he lived on the North Shore. He is now over at the Archdiocese. Surely, he is mismanaging their property when he should probably be back at Motorola, doing whatever it is he did there.

Comment by Anon35 Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 3:46 pm
==CPS won’t release the contracts to the Public==

You mean this contract?

http://www.csc.cps.k12.il.us/purchasing/pdfs/contracts/2016_05/16-0525-PR7-1.pdf

Comment by City Zen Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 4:03 pm
If CTU doesn’t recruit a candidate and rally around him or her to run against Rahm they will be just as irrelevant as AFSCME in five years.

Comment by Almost the Weekend Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 4:07 pm
The Aramark janitors will not have the unsustainable pensions and lifetime health care.

That is the reason CPS is bankrupt and the pensions are only 39 percent funded

Comment by Lucky Pierre Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 4:10 pm
@city zen
They didn’t post the revised contract, for which they ammended it to add engineers in 2016. That was for custodial services only.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 4:17 pm
@Lucky Pierre -

And the fact that Aramark is paying between 20-40% less to their janitors certainly lends them to only hiring the ‘best’. /s

The custodial staff before the change worked very hard for their jobs. Or, I suppose you feel that losing a pension is fine, as long as there are not ‘too many’ rat droppings in the water fountains?

Comment by How Ironic Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 4:21 pm
==The Aramark janitors will not have the unsustainable pensions and lifetime health care.==

One of the issues raised by the union was that outsourcing would cause problems for the municipal pension fund by reducing the number of employees paying in. Simultaneously correct and self-indicting.

Comment by City Zen Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 4:21 pm
Lucky, the pension costs for CPS employed janitors didn’t even come out of the CPS budget. Nice try though.

CTPF is 50% funded, not 39% funded.

And CPS retirees do not get premium free health insurance the way many state employees and some SURS annuitants receive.

Comment by Juice Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 4:26 pm
@LP- I guess that is a fair trade for rodent infested and unsanitary schools?/s

Comment by JS Mill Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 4:27 pm
How about close some more schools and double up cleanings?

Comment by Ole General Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 4:27 pm
Everything Emanuel has touched at CPS has turned to *Banned Word*. Maybe if he sent his kids to CPS instead of the U of C Lab School, he would have skin in the game. There is no part of privatization which has been successful. It an absolute mess.

Comment by West Sider Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 4:27 pm
== Of the 17 schools with more than $20,000 in fines, 12 serve populations where at least four of five children are African-American or Hispanic and low-income. ==

Sounds bad until you considered only about 10 percent of CPS students are white and 77 percent of all students are considered low income. So, that would indicated the problems were pretty evenly spread across racial and economic lines.

Comment by Roman Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 4:33 pm
-The Aramark janitors will not have the unsustainable pensions and lifetime health care.

That is the reason CPS is bankrupt and the pensions are only 39 percent funde—

Man, it must be hard being you. No joke. I just don’t see how you can read the article above and reach the conclusion you just did.

Is it a processing disorder?

Comment by Morty Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 4:34 pm
Money for the rich, rat droppings for the poor. Been that way for a long time in Illinois.

Comment by Rufus Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 4:35 pm
Thanks to City Zen for the link to the revised (2016) contract.

Actually, this contract does include engineering services, and HVAC services are specifically mentioned (this, for Union Thug Gramma - they were contractually obligated to service the malfunctioning heater in your granddaughter’s school).

It also devotes a considerable amount of space to pest control, which is interesting since a company spokeswoman had earlier claimed that they weren’t responsible for pest control. Oops.

It also stipulates that the company (”Vendor”) is responsible for providing all cleaning materials, which is interesting given that janitors have been begging CPS for supplies, and forced to buy their own.

Just on the basis of the reports out so far, and a brief scanning of the revised contract, boy has it been broken, and broken, and broken.

Word- My Twitter feed informed me that Rahm was “beyond outraged.” Mm-hmm.

I’m sure all the folks on this site understand that it’s not the custodians’ fault that their pension plan was somewhat underfunded. It’s perfectly possible to fully fund a public employees’ pension fund, even for those on the lower rungs of the pay scale. One of my offspring works for one, and it’s funded at +90%. Yes, it’s in another state - but we shouldn’t pretend like it can’t be done –it can, even in Illinois.

Comment by dbk Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 5:09 pm
CPS
Red lights
Parking meters
Halliburton

America and Chicago’s experience with privatization has been pretty shaky.

Thanks for connecting the dots on this one, Rich.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 5:36 pm
–0The Aramark janitors will not have the unsustainable pensions and lifetime health care.–

And they don’t clean the schools either, to the tune of $340 million.

You’re a business and fiscal genius. You and Rauner really can cipher that ROI.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 5:37 pm
Failure.

Comment by Biker Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 6:55 pm
==the pension costs for CPS employed janitors didn’t even come out of the CPS budget==

It is a little known fact the City of Chicago made employer pension payments on behalf of CPS. An even lesser known fact is CPS picked-up the employee portion of the pension payments for custodians like they did for teachers. So a large portion of the pension costs did indeed come from CPS budget.

MEABF is only 30% funded, so whoever was supposed to pay didn’t.

Comment by City Zen Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 7:16 pm
That is, the City of Chicago made employer pension payments on behalf of CPS for custodians or anyone under the SEIU contract.

Comment by City Zen Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 7:22 pm
Bitcoin’s technology makes this digital currency safe. http://all4webs.com/levesquewhitehead72/ghfcnaaxur821.htm

Comment by bitcoin news sites Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 9:01 pm
Some above mentioned more schools need to be closed. At least another 50 should be closed, but likely more than that need to go. CPS has lost something like 30k students over rthe last 4 years.

Comment by Ron Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 9:57 pm
Who’s managing the contracts? Contract fraud?
Who’s managing the contract employees? Contractors can’t just do what they want - someone has to monitor performance.

Comment by NoGifts Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 7:15 am
Who is approving the invoices for payment???

Comment by NoGifts Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 7:16 am
So Rham privatized the janitorial services for CPS? So much for Democrats being the party of the little guy.

Comment by NATTY BOY Thursday, Apr 5, 18 @ 10:22 am