Having lived in this town for almost 35 years, the one thing I have found is that by the time ANYTHING hits the newspapers, it's a "done deal". The decisions have ALREADY been made. The powers to be make a "show" about running meetings, asking for resident input, etc., etc, when NONE of the resident' "input" is going to matter OR change anyone's minds......This to date includes: neighborhoods being built over what WAS "wetlands", Westlands Elementary School closing, fire stations closing, additions to the Library (which they POUNDED down our throats..THREE times)
and new INFRASTRUCTURES being built where they don't belong.......my guess is that before long the present school committee is going to find out what the present Selectmen are learning.....you ARE in fact, ACCOUNTABLE to the residents of this town......WE elected you to represent US.........ALL of us, not just a chosen few.....

Donna ,
With all due respect, the School Committee has been very upfront about their intentions. I, too, was not completely sold on this idea, but I also can say the Committee was very willing to discuss this issue over the past month.

Booo. The school custodians we currently have have been dear friends to my boys over the years. I hate to see them treated this way. What is the savings if you compare offer to offer, not what is currently paid to the accepted bid? Sometimes relationships trump money money money.

Also, outsourcing the food service may have saved the school money, but it turns out to be expensive schlock for our kids. The track record for successful out sourcing to quality of services received is so far not good in my mind. So, we've fired custodial friends for our kids and offer our kids horrid awful school lunches, so how will outsourcing custodial services be any better in terms of cleaning our buildings and building relationships with our kids?

Money is important, but it isn't everything. Sometimes the lowest bid is just that.

I can't believe this is happening... Who is the Representative for th e union. How can PUBLIC EMPLOYESS BE PRIVATIZED - I agree Donna, all of the decisions have already been made. That's Chelmsford's DEMOCRACY for you. They are going to get ARAMARK into the schools, pay low wages without benefits.

Hi Sue - the Aramark representatives did tell the School Committee last night all their employees receive benefits and it's the same benefit packages that are available to the "higher ups" of the company.

Sadly, they will be bringing in a group of people who have no sense of "ownership" to the school, it' s children or the towns residents. So, in the Committee's "haste" to save a few dollars..(no doubt trying to make up for the teacher's raises) they will eliminate the jobs of people who have worked for the school system for YEARS. Most know the students and faculty, and CARE. I agree with Deidre that yes, money IS important, of course. But sometimes, you get JUST what you pay for....and not one bit more. I wonder in the end, how much will we be paying for these "out-sourced employees" to work overtime when there is a school function going on??? And, with all due respect to you Jeff, and the rest of the Committee...I'm sure you WERE willing to "listen"...BUT...can you in ALL HONESTY say that ANY OF YOU were actually willing to give some CONSIDERATION to what townspeople had to say??? I doubt it. And past history (the Westlands School as ONE example) proves me correct.... I doubt even further that the Committee EVER intended to accept ANY proposal the Janitors presented. .....My guess is...if you polled the town, you'd find that this $200,000 per year is money MANY of us wouldn't mind spending. There is something to be said for dedication and loyalty,the kind we will NOT receive from out-sourced employees. I wonder if anyone will be making random, un-announced checks to see how our "cost saving" changes are paying off? I hope SOMEONE intends to follow-up. Often.

Donna, I have learned after 44 years in Chelmsford (with 6 children and 3 grandchildren going to Chelmsford schools) there is no place in this town for loyalty and dedication.. (unless your an elected official) it's all about the dollar. Sad state of affairs but true. Time will show that this move was a bad mistake for the children, the town, the janitors but don't forget the savings in dollars!! What is this town coming to. Please take me back to the 60's and 70's when people cared about each other and were willing to pay for the good services the town offered!!

The bitter taste of poor quality lingers long after the sweet taste of low price. Aramark is a "for profit" entity and has a very iffy performance record. Go on the internet and google aramark facilities services to read the horror stories. Also watch out for "ghosts" on their payroll, paying for everything a la carte that is not included in their original cleaning "specs." Their so-called company benefits are laughable; who's kidding who here? And finally, wait for all the undocumented workers with "cadillac quality" false I.D.'s that you will get on an ongoing basis that will become a revolving door. Ah, and lets not forget all the things that will be missing from desk drawers, athletic storage rooms, et al. Still want to outsource? The nightmare begins on July 1st!

I know that both my kids have always had fond relationships with their school custodians, and I am saddened that this function will be privatized, causing many fine people to lose their jobs. With that said, I hate to say it, but Chelmsford is the same town that has time and again voted down override measures to pay for much needed school improvements. I doubt that the it would be so easy to squeeze $200,000 from this town for the custodians. It's another sign of the times, less services, less personal services certainly. Higher price tag. I don't envy any governing body that has to make these tough decisions. I believe they have the well being of our schools and our students at heart, but in times like these, that might mean making a decision like this in order to save some budget money to be used for teachers or supplies. I do not support the concept of outsourcing core services like this, but I wish that the custodian's union had been able to make a competitive offer to the school committee. Any way you look at it, it's a sad situation.

One last comment.....(but it's important)

Macklin Targoyne sounds EXACTLY like what Chelmsford needs on their School Committee ! ! !

What say NOW, Jeff???

Does Dave know of what he speaks??? If his comments are true, it is of little surprise to many of us, I'm sure....and once again, as I mentioned earlier.....it's unlikely that bringing in a group of "janitors" (whose first language no doubt, will NOT be English) at the cost of terminating long-time town employees, will do little to get yourselves re-elected. There are other groups in town who have come to realize that residents often have VERY long memories!

Hey guys, let's relax with the assumptions about the workers' native language and their immigrant status. Let's stop it before it gets out of hand. Thanks!

Fact: The School Committee voted to outsource, effective July 1st, and a letter was given to all custodians advising them of this. This vote was done in executive session. There was no public discussion, no public vote, no public opinion of each school committee member as to why they were voting the way they did.

Fact: It wasn't made known until the 6/7/2011 SC meeting that the SC Chairwoman had to recuse herself because of a conflict of interest. Why then was Aramark allowed to bid in the first place and what involvement did she have up until this date.

Fact: The Agenda of the 6/7/2011 SC Meeting wasn't posted until after the meeting had already started. This is a change from all other meetings where the agenda is posted days prior.

Fact: The President of the Teacher's Union made a public statement that she is against this decision to outsource Custodial services.

David: I actually stopped by the Town Clerk's office today and saw the agenda for the School Committee was posted on Monday, June 6 at 3 p.m. For that reason - according to the Open Meeting Law, which requires the agenda be posted 48 hours in advance - the School Committee did not vote last night and will instead meet tonight to vote. The Town Clerk was aware they met as a committee but did not vote.

Krista,
This is absolutely incorrect. I was on the website ALL DAY yesterday up until 5pm and it wasn't posted. And in fact, if you look at the website now you will see in the right hand column that the agenda wasn't even created/posted until 6/7 - which was yesterday: http://school-committee.chelmsford.schoolfusion.us/modules/locker/files/group_files.phtml?gid=1596054&parent=7324634&sessionid=97d78e3ee96ed8e782602957a23f20b5

And once again, the vote tonight is to vote FOR Aramark. The vote to outsource was already made in a closed Executive Session prior to Monday.

It's a tragedy.

Ah yes but boards and committees are not REQUIRED to post their agendas on the Internet. They are only required to post their agendas with the Town Clerk.

You can actually go to Town Hall and look at the date and time stamp on the agenda on the bulletin board.

Ok fine. Technicality, but one would wonder why this was NOT posted on the internet days ahead of time like all the others? Were they trying to avoid a public outcry because of the negative feedback that this issue has gotten? 5 people from Aramark don't schedule themselves to appear at a SC committee meeting at the drop of the hat. This was known well in advance and it wasn't made known to anyone prior. This was a back door effort - no doubt about it.

Just a reminder that all comments on Patch must be made with first and last names in usernames. For more information on this please see our terms of use at chelmsford.patch.com/terms - thank you.

I think it's time to give our children a lesson on organzing - If we had our children outside of their schools holding signs that said Justice for Janitors , one could only imagine - - I told my 9 year son who attends South Row School that his custotians are going to be FIRED. You don't elimate a job and then hire someone to replace them. That is what you do when you fire someone. My heart goes out to these hard workers, who will loose their jobs, benefits and pensions, to allow for some Corporation to come in and take over and leave the Chelmsford Public School Custotians in the UNEMPLOYMENT LINE - all for the BUCK$$

Nice article posted at: http://www.wickedlocal.com/chelmsford/news/x832286685/Chelmsford-schools-custodial-services-to-be-outsourced#axzz1OmUdNnVe

Mr. DeSilvio said, “I’m confident from an operational standpoint that our schools will be as clean or cleaner."

WOW! Does he have a surprise coming!

I guess I will be the one here who will stand up for our School Committee. I do not send my children to school to have a personel relationship with the custoidial staff. I send them to school to get an education from teachers. As to the many people quoting that there will be strangers in the schools, well every time we hire a new teacher they are strangers. You all were once strangers in you work enviornment. In this economy the town and administration is forced every day to make the tough decision with as much information as possible. It is amazing how everyone comes out of the woodworks after decisions have been made. I did not see a single person complaining about this issue on the ballot for school committee at the last election. These committee members have children in the schools just as I do and I feel confident that they would never put the safety of our children at risk

Not sure the ONLY issue here is the safety of the children. Of COURSE the SC would NOT put them in harm's way....some of this is about protecting our "own"......people who have worked for us for 20, 25 30 years or more. Not so sure they couldn't have found OTHER ways to save money...when as I mentioned earlier they were made aware of MANY kids going to school here TUITION free, and chose to do nothing about it..at what...roughly $8,000 per year, per student??? Times how MANY students, we knew of at LEAST 15, maybe MORE....How critical then, is it for them to save money now??