- April 17, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
In an effort to test how an in-house school-based custodial staff can perform, Volusia County School's custodial pilot program will go live on July 1.
The pilot program was first approved by the Volusia County School Board at its March 30 meeting, and as a result, 15 schools will be cleaned by its custodial staff rather than by employees of ABM Industries, the district's current custodial services contractor. The creation of the program was due to cleanliness complaints by school board members and VCS employees, as well as failed core inspections, according to the March 30 agenda.
Three of the schools in which the pilot program will be implemented are local: Tomoka Elementary, Seabreeze High School and Mainland High School.
Through the program, the district is seeking to demonstrate that "an in-house school-based custodial staff will perform at or above the current level of service that is being provided by an ABM contractor in all inspections grades, the number of complaints received, and satisfaction grading from the school-based staff at a comparable or lesser cost to the district," the March 30 agenda states. The district is also testing to see if directly buying supplies and equipment will be more cost-efficient.
The pilot program will run until June 30, 2022.
The School Board was given an update on the pilot program at its meeting on Tuesday, June 22.
Mark Shanoff, the district's new chief operating officer of operations, who started working in June, said that the district is poised to launch the program successfully to have clean buildings once the new school year starts. VCS employees will still be able to report cleanliness concerns as they have been able to under ABM.
“We have made tremendous progress, and I’m very pleased at how we’re starting this," Superintendent Scott Fritz said. "The team has done a really good job. Our commitment has been to make sure this is successful.”
School Board Member Anita Burnette said she was excited for the program to start.
“I’m ready to hear all the wonderful comments we get from the teachers and the staff when they go back to school about how clean the school is," she said.
