District Administration - August 2007 - (Page 53)

older and it’s a very physically demanding job.” Outsourcing the district’s custodial services broke the cycle. Making Outsourcing Work Once you move forward with outsourcing a support service, ensure a smooth transition and a productive long-term relationship with the vendor by following these general guidelines: • Get Speciﬁc. Start with a one-year renewable contract to give yourself an out, and spell out details of what you expect the vendor to do. • Keep Communicating. “I have a person on my staﬀ whose sole job is to administer that contract, and she talks to the Kelly [Educational Staﬃng] staﬀ daily,” says Reynolds of Duval County Public Schools. The principals also have a contact person at Kelly, and they can ask Reynolds about any unresolved problems with a substitute teacher. • Designate a Media Contact. Work with the vendor when assigning a spokesperson, and create a plan to deal with the media, should a problem arise with a vendor’s employee. • Limit Your Liability. Lawyers should include hold-harmless agreements in contracts, which identify a vendor’s responsibilities and limit a district’s liability, should the contractor be negligent in performing its duties. • Perform Due Diligence. The contract administrator should verify the vendor is performing the required employee screenings, from background checks to credit reports, in a timely manner. If not, it’s an immediate deal-breaker. Several years ago, Cherry Hill Public Schools in New Jersey terminated its contract with a building maintenance services company when the vendor failed to conduct the state-required background checks on its employees. • Run the Numbers. Each year, Crane of Santa Rosa County School District runs ﬁnancial reports on the contracts he manages, in order to show cost savings. He factors in what it would cost for the same people to be paid as district employees www.DistrictAdministration.com Challenge in Ohio EVERY STATE HAS LAWS THAT DISTRICTS SHOULD BE AWARE OF WHEN IT comes to outsourcing. For example, California prohibits districts from outsourcing services typically performed by school district personnel without ﬁrst negotiating with the employees, says attorney Ricardo Soto at Best, Best & Krieger in San Diego. Other states require public agencies to follow speciﬁc procedures when they contract with vendors. Failing to follow the law can be costly and time-consuming. The board of education in the Springﬁeld Local School District in Ohio learned this lesson the hard way. Its decision to outsource the transportation department resulted in an unfortunate eight-year court battle that cost the district thousands of dollars in legal fees and lost wages. In early 1993, the board notiﬁed the union, Local 530 of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees/AFSCME-AFL-CIO, that it was considering privatizing the district’s transportation services. Although the board and union continued contract negotiations, the collective bargaining agreement expired in August 1993. Two weeks later, the board authorized the superintendent to enter into a transportation contract with Laidlaw Transit and to eliminate the bus driver and mechanics positions within the district. In September 1993, the workers went on strike but then quickly ended it, declaring that they wanted their continuing contracts to be honored by the board and to return to work employed by the board. The workers also ﬁled a lawsuit to compel the board to recognize their contracts, reinstate them to their original positions, award back pay and beneﬁ ts, and nullify the district’s contract with Laidlaw. The workers went back to work and resumed their regular duties as bus drivers and mechanics. Their rights were governed by Ohio’s revised code for nonteaching employees, according to court records. Without a collective bargaining agreement stating otherwise, Ohio’s revised code prohibits a district’s board from abolishing positions and laying off nonteaching personnel while hiring nonpublic employees to ﬁll them. But a month later, the board executed its contract with Laidlaw, abolished the positions of bus driver and mechanic in the district, and deemed the individuals working in those roles to be employees of Laidlaw. The Ohio Supreme Court declared the district’s contract with Laidlaw void and ordered that the bus drivers and mechanics were entitled to back pay and beneﬁ ts as well as their jobs. To minimize the risk of a lawsuit, some vendors, like Student Transportation of America, will negotiate with union representatives before submitting a proposal to the district’s board. But even without a union, it’s a smart move for district administrators to give affected employees a chance to negotiate a new labor contract with the vendor. “Once you’re convinced that you’re going to be outsourcing, let us open up discussions with the labor force and the union, if in fact there is one,” says Keith Engelbert, an STA spokesman. “Let us show them what we’re going to do for them so there aren’t any disputes when the drivers are informed about a potential outsourcing of the transportation. We’ve never gone into a school district and said, ‘We don’t want your drivers or mechanics.’ We want to make your current labor force feel assured that they will be working for us.” August 2007 53 http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - August 2007

Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
Research Corner
Computer Literature
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Bus Money
DIBELS Draws Doers & Doubters
Report from EduComm 2007
Ins and Outs of Outsourcing
Curriculum Clearance
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Problem Solution
Online Edge
Speaking Out
Professional Opinion
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration - August 2007