Gilmer County Custodians Want to Know, “Where’s the Benefit” in Privatizing?

While the Board appeared concerned about employees losing sick days, it seemed to overlook the larger concern of benefits. The Board of Education announced the privatization of Gilmer County’s custodial services last week at its monthly meeting. The contract went to Southern Management, which will begin managing services July 1st. At the meeting, the Board agreed to buy $14,000 in unused sick days. While the Board appeared concerned about employees losing sick days, it seemed to overlook the larger concern of benefits. When a custodial employee at the meeting asked what kind of benefits package the company offered, Director of Sales and Marketing for Southern Management, Don Toole told her,

“We have some benefits stuff that we have to finish working out, I believe, in the contract before we can get specific.”

Before awarding Southern Management the contract, the Board narrowed down the initial four bids to two bids. The two bids were from Southern Management and Rite Way. FYN reviewed both proposals for an hour last week. Here’s what we found:Rite Way’s proposal included a clearly marked section outlining its benefits program. Although we did not examine this section for details, we noticed the section was neatly tabbed and included medical and dental plans. In contrast, Southern Management’s proposal lacked clarity and, more important, was missing a benefits section. When asked about the absence of a benefits section from the Southern Management proposal, Superintendent Dorsey said,

“We had to ask them (Southern Management) to re-submit some information, like benefits package, to us.”

Mr. Dorsey added,

“I believe that (the benefits information) was emailed to Mr. Wingo.”

Later in the week, FYN received a copy of the benefits email and reviewed it. Southern Management’s benefits description is one page, while Rite Way’s benefits description occupies several pages.
In short, last Thursday night, as the BOE voted unanimously to accept Southern Management’s proposal, a benefits package had yet to be finalized.

View the email of Southern Management’s benefits plan sent to FYN from Mr. Wingo: see below

Other concerns about the transition are pay rate and hiring process. In an interview last week, Mr. Dorsey confirmed Southern Management will pay day custodians $8.50 an hour. In comparison, he said,

“Our range is somewhere between 9.25/9.75 to 12 something an hour.”

Additionally, in the June work session, Mr. Dorsey stated that Gilmer County’s pay scale for custodial workers is significantly higher than industry standards. Also, Trey Brock, Director of Operations for Southern Management, told FYN that in order for Southern Management to hire Gilmer County employees,

“they will, of course have to meet all our pre-employment requirements; we’ll re-background check everybody, which is part of our K-12 screening process; we drug test, those types of things, go through the application process. But, they’re all, unless there’s something we ran into on the background check or drug test, they’re all going to be hired and are going to be employees of Southern Management.”

Follow this developing story as FYN continues further investigations.
Watch Video of Don Toole, Director of Sales and Marketing for Southern Management, Answer Employee’s Questions

Interview with Don Toole and Trey Brock from Southern Management from Fetch on Vimeo.

Watch Interview With Superintendent Bryan Dorsey

Interview with Bryan Dorsey Superintendent of Schools concerning privatizing custodial services from Fetch on Vimeo.