In what Superintendent Linda Dwight called a difficult choice, the School Committee decided this week to outsource custodial work at the Harvard schools. Mark Force will continue as director of facilities for the schools, but eight custodial staff members will lose their jobs. The schools will contract with the Durkin Company of Billerica beginning June 21.
In an email about the new arrangement, Finance Director Lorraine Leonard wrote, “There are savings on the town side for health insurance, pension match, Medicare, and workers comp insurance, as well as the OPEB [other post-employment benefits] liability . . . .”
“It was not an easy decision for anyone,” Dwight said, after informing the custodians, some of whom have been with the school district since the 1990s.
Under the terms of the new contract, Dwight said, Durkin will provide two custodians during the day, one for each school building. A regular cleaning crew, with consistent members and a supervisor, will come in each evening. Dwight said the schools will also create a custodial position with flexible hours, so that school buildings will still be available for community use in the evenings.
The goal is to bring the buildings up to a higher standard of cleanliness and to keep them there, Dwight said. In a one-time tryout, the schools recently hired Durkin to clean the Bromfield cafeteria, and Dwight said the result was “a really good showcase” for the company.
The School Committee was impressed by Durkin’s long-term employees and the company’s extensive training program for those employees, according to Dwight. Durkin also uses “green” cleaning products, she said.
About a dozen years ago, the School Committee tried a similar arrangement with unsatisfactory results, in part because the cleaning crew personnel were constantly changing. If there are similar problems with Durkin, Dwight said, the contract includes clauses that allow the Harvard schools to withdraw from the agreement.
