|
|
Type:
|
Resolution
|
Status:
|
Failed to Pass
|
|
Title:
|
Call for Committee on Education and Child Development to hold informational hearing(s) on privatizing management of custodial services at Chicago Public Schools
|
|
Topic:
|
COMMITTEE/PUBLIC HEARINGS - Committee on Education and Child Development
|
|
Attachments:
|
1. R2017-1035.pdf
|
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, On March 1, 2014, the Board of Education of the City of Chicago ("Board"'), commonly known as the Chicago Public Schools ("CPS"), signed a three-year Custodial Services Agreement ("Original Aramark Agreement") with Aramark Management Services Limited Partnership ("Aramark"), one of the largest janitorial companies in the Country, and a three-year Integrated Facility Management Agreement ("Original SodexoMAGIC Agreement") with SodexoMAGIC, LLC ("SodexoMAGIC"), for a term commencing March 1, 2014 and ending February 28, 2017, with the Board having two options to renew each Agreement for one-year terms; and
WHEREAS, The Original Aramark Agreement awarded $260 million to Aramark to provide custodial and other additional services at 480 CPS facilities throughout Chicago. Pursuant to this Original Agreement, which was subsequently amended to include approximately 20 to 25 additional schools, Aramark assumed responsibility for cleaning and maintaining twenty-six designated areas within each facility that it serviced, including classrooms, chalkboards, entrances, laboratories, restrooms, cafeterias, gymnasiums, offices, closets, corridors, stairways and other specifically identified areas. The Agreement also specified the manner and frequency with which each of these areas would be sanitized and disinfected, emptied of trash, spot cleaned, dusted, horizontal wet cleaned, dry mopped, damp mopped and vacuumed, and provided with additional services, such as cleaning laboratory equipment, removing graffiti, refinishing gymnasium floors, painting, controlling interior pests, re-lamping light fixtures, as well as preventive-, predictive- and corrective-maintenance, and overall condition assessments; and
WHEREAS, To ensure compliance with its cleanliness standards, the Original Aramark Agreement imposed Service Level Obligations on Aramark, which required Aramark, among other things, to furnish the Board with regular assessments, at three-month intervals, prepared by an independent, qualified inspector of nationally recognized standing, assessing 25% of the facilities being serviced by Aramark for compliance with APPA 2 Cleaning Standards; to cure deficiencies in meeting these standards within a 30-day cure period in accordance with initial and ultimate target goals; to collect data on the number of inbound calls made to Aramark"s complaint call center, including the call abandonment rate and the follow-up time for Aramark to respond to these calls; to furnish to the Board a written annual survey, developed jointly with the Board, for distribution to the principals of CPS schools, for use in evaluating Aramark's compliance with required performance guarantees and in establishing target approval ratings for the company to meet in the next annual survey; and to confer with the Board, on a regular basis, to discuss performance and savings opportunities at CPS facilities; and
WHEREAS, The Original SudexoMAGIC Agreement awarded $80 million to SodexoMAGIC to perform fully integrated facilities management across a pre-selected group of 33 schools. Pursuant to this Original Agreement, which was subsequently amended to include
approximately 30 additional schools, SodexoMAGIC assumed responsibility for managing custodial services, engineering services, various trades, landscaping, snow removal and pest control at these schools; for regularly assessing the condition of the buildings, equipment and systems; for developing and implementing building operations; for preventive maintenance; and for making capital plan recommendations necessary to maintain, preserve and keep the premises in good condition. Deliverables also included cleaning buildings to a level 2 APPA standard; providing a call center for quick responses to school needs; providing best in class technology, equipment and training; and establishing comprehensive asset inventories, as well as strong data systems, to empower CPS to make data-driven long term financial decisions; and
WHEREAS, On January 25, 2017, the Board announced that the term of each of the Original Agreements with Aramark and SodexoMAGIC, as amended, was being renewed for one year commencing March 1, 2017 and ending February 28, 2018. There is one option period for one year remaining; and
WHEREAS, Despite various provisions in the Original Agreements, as amended, to ensure quality control at the CPS facilities managed by Aramark and SodexoMAGIC, Chicago Aldermen frequently receive complaints from teachers, parents, principals and students that CPS schools are dirty and lack sufficient custodial staff necessary to keep them clean. One unacceptable result is that teachers and classroom volunteers often find themselves doing double duty as school custodians, instead of focusing attention on their fundamental responsibility, which is to educate our children; and
WHEREAS, It is essential that the Chicago Public Schools use the funds entrusted to it wisely and responsibly, and obtain honest value for those expenditures. This responsibility is further heightened if significant funding is being provided to CPS by the City of Chicago; now, therefore.
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Members of the City Council of the City of Chicago, assembled this 21st day of November, 2017, do hereby direct the Committee on Education and Child Development of the Chicago City Council to hold an informational hearing on the advantages and disadvantages of continued privatization of management of custodial services at the Chicago Public Schools, and on the steps taken by, and options available to, the Board of Education to improve the level of cleanliness in our public schools and to hold vendors charged with responsibility for keeping our public schools clean accountable for their failure to do so; and to call upon appropriate representatives of the Chicago Public Schools. Aramark Management Services Limited Partnership, and SodexoMAGIC, LLC, to testify relative to this important matter.
|