Recently in Schools K-12 Category

Source: By Aleea Hibeln, Observer & Eccentric Mirror (MI), May 22, 2008

The Northville Public Schools Board of Education is looking into outsourcing custodial, food service, and transportation jobs because of declining money from the state and flat or declining enrollment. If a decision is made to privatize, implementation would likely occur in August.

The board is scheduled to make a decision on whether to privatize by June 10. If they decide to go forward with outsourcing, 54 custodians, 49 bus drivers and 45 food service personnel will lose their jobs as early as August.

Source: By Harold Gwin, Vindicator (OH), Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Noncertified city school employees are asking for some loyalty from the city school board. Concerns that the board may opt to bring in a private company to manage the district's food service program prompted representatives of American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees Local 1143 to address a school board business committee meeting Tuesday.

..... The committee has had a preliminary report from Sodexho School Services, a management company providing assistance to schools and colleges, that suggested Youngstown might be able to boost its revenues by $250,000 to $300,000 a year through increased student participation, said Michael Murphy, committee chairman.

Source: By Betsy Yagla, New Haven Advocate, Tuesday, May 20, 2008

...... After a long and hard-fought battle, unionized school cafeteria workers succeeded in forcing New Haven public schools to put Aramark's 14-year-old food service contract out to bid. (Aramark continues to manage school maintenance.) When none of the bids were up to snuff, the schools decided to take the program in-house. Aramark's contract ends June 30. The following day, the job of running a healthy, cost-effective lunch program falls to the Board of Education.

.... Has Aramark been skimping on food to city schools since losing its lucrative contract as food service provider? Several cafeteria workers say it has, and suspect retaliation. "We're down to one entrée," says Grace Daniele, a shop steward and cook at Nathan Hale School.

....... Daniele says she used to serve three or four meal choices at lunch time. "It changed completely after they were notified they'd no longer be our management company," says Daniele.

Source: By The Associated Press (AZ), May 16, 2008

A state appellate court ruled Thursday that two voucher programs for foster and disabled children attending private schools violate the Arizona Constitution by using public money to help private and religious schools.

The 3-0 ruling Thursday by a Court of Appeals panel in Tucson reverses a trial judge's ruling that upheld the programs enacted in 2006 at the urging of "school choice" supporters.

Source: By STEVEN GREENHOUSE, New York Times, May 14, 2008

Four City Department of Education employees were charged in a federal indictment (.pdf) on Tuesday with soliciting bribes in exchange for promising preferential treatment, including on safety inspections, to bus companies that serve thousands of special education students.

...... The indictment said the bus companies, which were not named, had paid bribes from the mid-1990s to 2007 for a variety of reasons, among them to get reduced fines for safety violations and advance notice of inspections that were supposed to be unannounced.

....... Parents of special education children have complained for years about unreliable bus service as well as abusive treatment of their children by bus drivers and matrons.

Source: BY CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY, Detroit FREE PRESS (MI), May 9, 2008

The food program provided to Detroit Public Schools students could soon be served, as well as managed, by school employees.

The Detroit Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday night to allow the contract with Philadelphia-based Aramark Educational Services, LLC to expire on June 30. Aramark has managed the $44-million food-services operation since 2001.

....... The vote came after at least a year of lobbying and protests staged by union employees who argued that DPS employees could do a better and cheaper job of running the food services.

..... Aramark President Dennis Maple wrote in a May 6 letter to Calloway that DPS should stick with his company. He also offered to work under contract to help transition to in-house management by employees.

Source: JOHN BURGESON, Connecticut Post, 05/06/2008 11:05:15 PM EDT

Mayor Bill Finch, excoriated in recent days over his proposed budget that would deeply cut the school health clinics, said Tuesday the clinics could remain open if they were privatized. Finch, at a news conference in City Hall Annex, announced the formation of a seven-member committee that will make recommendations for turning over operation of the 10 school clinics to private health care providers.

....... Finch was referring to the reimbursement the city gets from Medicaid for services provided at the clinics. Other health care providers can bill Medicaid at a higher rate than the city if they're federally qualified, officials say.

Source: BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN, Chicago Sun Times (IL), April 30, 2008

Cathy and Richard Bedard worried that something was wrong on the bus that took two of their three special-needs children to school. So the Berwyn couple slipped a tape recorder in their 13-year-old daughter Tiffany's backpack to investigate. They couldn't believe their ears when they pushed play. Cathy Bedard threw up.

"F - - - ing little monster," a man groused at 17-year-old Rick, who has Down syndrome. There were also jokes about tying kids to the roof of the bus, threats of breaking a child's finger and chuckling when a disabled student was escorted to another seat in order to "irritate" a classmate.

...... The driver and a bus aide, Eugene Church, were suspended from driving students in the Morton School District 201, which hired First Student Inc. to transport eight disabled children to a special-needs school in Chicago.

But the district learned that the two men were allowed to work elsewhere following a six-week suspension after the Jan. 17 recording surfaced, so the district is reviewing its $1.5 million annual contract with First Student and will try to bid the contract out by the end of the school year, district spokesman Dan Proft said.

Source: Jennifer Mrozowski, The Detroit News, Saturday, May 3, 2008

The Detroit Public Schools board on Thursday will consider a recommendation to boot the private company that has run its food services operation since 2001, a move being championed by some parents and cafeteria workers who have criticized the Philadelphia-based firm.

A school board subcommittee voted 3-0 on Thursday to recommend giving Aramark Educational Services LLC a 60-day termination notice as of July 1, said school board President Carla Scott.

......... Criticism of the $40 million food services operation has ramped up in recent months, with some union groups and parents holding rallies at the district's headquarters calling for termination of the contract. A union group earlier this year released a study claiming that Aramark mismanaged the district's cafeterias and kept more than $1 million in savings that should have been returned to the system.

Source: By Elizabeth Benton, New Haven Register (CT), Sat, Apr 19, 2008

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has begun a probe of beleaguered school lunch provider Aramark Corp., citing concerns about "reports of deficient food quality and service" and inappropriate handling of food rebates and discounts. In a Friday letter to Aramark General Counsel Bart Colli, Blumenthal "strongly urged" Aramark to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests submitted by local unions, and requested Aramark provide similar information to his office by April 28.

...... Aramark is fighting a Freedom of Information Act request for Aramark's financial records from the Service Employees International Union, which claims the company has run deficits in its food service programs nationwide.