The company negotiated the contract with Monroe and the Middletown School District, which approved the same contract earlier this week.
A resident questioned the commission’s willingness to approve the Sodexo plan.
“It just seems strange to me that we would pay more money for an outsourced company than we would pay for the custodial staff last year,” said Mark Jestice, of Monroe.
“They paid $614,000 last year, and now we’re going to pay $640,000 to Sodexo, a difference of $26,000.”
District Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli explained that budget cuts reduced the workforce from 13 down to 11 custodial staffers at the end of the 2011-12 school year. She said further cuts for fiscal year 2013 will reduce the staff to nine custodians.
“When we actually bid on this on our own, our remaining employees would have had to take a pay cut. With the Middletown combination, we were able to save more money,” Lolli said.
Saddled with a $2.2 million general-fund debt and a $3.1 million legacy debt, which was caused by misspending of a bond fund dating back to 2005, Monroe’s school district was placed under a state of fiscal emergency by the state auditor’s office on May 9.
The commission has since been put in place to try to get the district out of debt.
“This was a pretty cut-and-dried meeting,” said chairman Mike Watson.
“I think the process is going well. Everybody is still dancing with each other, so that’s a good thing. We’re still gathering information at this point. As soon as we feel comfortable that we can put a plan together, we’ll start doing that.”
The commission has until Sept. 27 to create a recovery plan.
About the Author