Recently in Schools K-12 Category

Source: AM Online (MI), 02/29/2008

Detroit, Mich. public school officials are investigating Aramark's food service management contract, according to The Detroit Free Press. The district could be forced to pay penalties to the state if it is found to have used federal money that by law was not supposed to be paid to Aramark, said Barry Sackin, a consultant and former vice president of public policy for the School Nutrition Association in Alexandria, Va.

Source: By Mary Beth Almond, C & G News (MI), Feb. 22.

Members of Birmingham Public Schools' custodial and transportation staff are up in arms about the district's exploration of possible changes to school services.

...... On Feb. 5, an alert from the Michigan American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 25 was placed next to the agenda outside the Board of Education meeting room for members of the community to pick up on their way into the meeting.

The flier, endorsed by Michigan AFSCME Council 25 President Albert Garrett and Secretary-Treasurer Lawrence A. Roehrig, stated, "As public school districts consider choosing moving forward with plans to privatize school services, they are treading a well-worn and ill-chosen path filled with pitfalls."

Source: TRACI L. WEISENBACH , The Huron Daily Tribune (MI), 02/15/2008

UPPER THUMB -- As schools across this area and the state are working to trim their expenses wherever possible, school leaders are faced with some very difficult decisions. The goal is to make budget reductions that will affect students' education the least, and to that end, some districts are choosing to privatize non-instructional services.

According to survey data from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Michigan school districts have increased their use of competitive contracting with private firms for school support services in recent years. From 2005 to 2007, the percentage of districts that contracted food, busing or janitorial services rose from 35.5 percent to 40.2 percent. In the Upper Thumb, only a few districts are privatizing a support service -- Caseville, Deckerville, Harbor Beach and Port Hope, according to the Mackinac Center data.

Source: By Susan Snyder, Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), Wed, Feb. 13, 2008

Parent and student groups plan to block traffic at Broad and Spring Garden streets at 4 p.m. today to call on the Philadelphia School District to end contracts with six outside groups that manage nearly 40 city schools.

The group's action comes as the district finishes plans to overhaul 70 of its lowest performing schools. More than a dozen of the 70 are managed by the outside groups including Edison Schools Inc., Victory Schools, Foundations Inc., Universal Companies, the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University.

Source: Elizabeth Benton, New Haven Register (CT), Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Union-sponsored billboards that target Aramark Corp. will hit the Elm City this week as part of an accelerating union campaign to remove the Philadelphia-based company from oversight of maintenance of public schools.

The 10 billboards, paid for by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 4, target Aramark for the purchase of what custodians claim are unwieldy, ineffective and overpriced "bear-proof" trash Dumpsters.

Source: Samantha Broussard-Wilson, Yale Daily News (CT), Friday, February 1, 2008

Aramark, the food-services company formerly employed by Yale University Dining Services, is now facing allegations of mismanagement and poor food quality from cafeteria workers and custodians in New Haven Public Schools.

...... The rally is being organized by UNITE HERE, a union that includes hotel, restaurant and some cafeteria employees and is affiliated with the Federation of Hospital and University Employees, the union for service workers at Yale. Council 4 and Service Employees International Union, both custodial-worker unions, are also involved in the organizing the rally.

...... The Local 287 division of Council 4 had almost 100 percent of its membership sign a petition calling for the Board of Education to fire Aramark, said Larry Dorman, a Council 4 spokesman.

By Diane Bukowski, Special to The Michigan Citizen, January 27, 2008

DETROIT -- Dozens of demonstrators braved chilling winds outside the Detroit Public Schools Welcome Center Jan. 18 to kick off a national campaign aimed at dumping Aramark contracts at school districts, universities and hospitals.

Members of the community, including DPS parents and state legislators, along with the unions UNITE/HERE, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Operating Engineers Local 547, Teamsters Council 43, and the Detroit Federation of Teachers, among others, called on the new school board and DPS Superintendent Connie Calloway to cut ties with Aramark.

Source: Socialist Worker, January 18, 2008

NEW SEATTLE Public Schools superintendent, Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson, in her effort to centralize and standardize the Seattle Public School District has hired the New York-based consulting firm McKinsey & Co.--a corporation with a track record of supporting school privatization.

But the teachers developed a different lesson plan for the direction of the public schools--the Seattle Education Association (SEA, the local teachers' union) overwhelmingly ratified a motion strongly advising its members to not participate in interviews with McKinsey.

Source: By Elizabeth Benton, New Haven Register (CT), Mon, Jan 14, 2008

Nearly 200 custodians working in city schools will petition the Board of Education tonight to terminate its relationship with Aramark Corp, calling the Philadelphia company's performance in New Haven an "unmitigated disaster."

"There's no more working together. There's no more covering for them," said Robert Montouri, president of Council 4 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 287.

Source: By Donna Beutler, Whitewood Herald, December 3rd, 2007

It was bad news for private school bus owners who will no longer be in the business of providing bus service for students in the Prairie Valley School Division (PVSD) following the board's decision to have its own fleet of buses in operation by August of 2008. The motion was supported by six board members and opposed by four.

Private bus owners were shocked to hear the news that the decision had been made at special meeting of the board on November 23rd and according to local bus owners like Les Beutler and Kevin White last Thursday when The Herald spoke to them, they had not yet been notified of the decision by the Prairie Valley office.