City Board Reaffirms Custodial Bid Process 12/16/2015

City board reaffirms custodial bid process

By TINA FORBES
Staff Writer

NASHUA - In the last scheduled meeting of the year, the Nashua Board of Education forged ahead critiquing a Request for Proposals for custodial vendors, while also taking a moment to reaffirm the board's reasons for seeking bids in the first place.

At the end of the Monday meeting, the RFP was not yet complete, although members anticipated revisiting the document as soon as possible.

"We need to act on this before the end of the month, we need to get this out," George Farrington, board president, said Monday.

With questions raised by the school board, the RFP draft now heads to the city attorney for review before returning to the board for approval. "When we know when the information will be available, we can schedule a meeting," Farrington said.

Member Kim Kleiner advocated for stopping the privatization process altogether, although the board voted against the measure 8-1.

"My reason is simple - is this actually a financial savings? And is this in the best interests of our citizens?" Kleiner said. A member of the board, and the ad hoc committee to review custodial vendors, Kleiner has been against privatization since the original vote to explore the process in September.

"We are making decisions on bad information. We do not know what's happening in our schools right now, therefore, you cannot write an effective RFP," she said. "What you're doing is you're writing an RFP that does not include what our current custodians do."

Kleiner said if every item is not completely clear, the vendor will add to their bill.

With personnel costs taking up 80 percent of the school budget, and a tight budget year anticipated ahead of them, board member Robert Hallowell said the board must explore every potential saving. Until the private vendors submit responses to the RFP, the board will not know what the potential savings will be, he said.

"I don't know whether this is all going to work out. I don't know the answer," Hallowell said. "What I do know is we will never have the opportunity to see what privatization will save us without this process."

He said the board is open to hearing any suggestions on how to save costs in the new budget.

"As I've said many times, I cannot create a budget on wishful thinking, I have to do it on reality," Hallowell said.

Board member Steven Haas agreed with Hallowell. "I fully understand all the services our current custodians provide us, but (the budget) has been so ungodly tight the past couple of years," he said.

Kleiner said the problem is administration is not including the entire scope of custodial work.

"I understand no RFP is perfect, but the problem is, you don't know the process now," she said.

Board member Sandra Ziehm said the board ought to consider outsourcing custodial management, which she brought up at the last ad hoc committee meeting Dec. 9.

"If we're looking at the custodians, we should be looking at the management as well," she said. "I'm hoping at some point in time that can become part of this RFP as well."

Farrington said if the numbers come back from private vendors, and the change isn't worth it, "Then bring on the humble pie, I'll have a heaping serving," he said. "We've come this far, we have to come back and see what that number is."

Board member David Murotake said as a state representative he has seen first hand this year has been "odious" for budget cuts, particularly for public education.

"The amount of education funding is not likely to go up, and is very likely to diminish," he said. "I would like to see this process move forward. I do not know how this is going to turn out either."

"I think we owe it to the citizens of Nashua, and ourselves, to look at the figures, see what the figures are, and look at some of the intangibles people are talking about, and look at what we're getting," board member Dorothy Oden said.

Toward the end of the meeting, Kleiner, who was attending her final full board meeting before her term expires in January, announced she will resign from the custodial ad hoc committee.

Leaving the board does not obligate Kleiner to leave the committee, however, she said her new position within the mayor-elect's cabinet presents a conflict of interest.

Tina Forbes can be reached at 594-6402, via email or via Twitter.

Entire story found here.







Above, Jason Guerette presents over 2,800 signatures to the Board of Education Monday night urging them to stop their plans to privatize.