Lynn ISD boss hints at rehire of janitors

LYNN – At least a portion of the 26 custodial and maintenance staff members laid off by the city earlier this month may have an opportunity to return to work this summer, thanks to a flurry of expected retirements in the Inspectional Services Department.Speaking before the School Committee Thursday night, ISD Director Michael Donovan said he expects at least 10 senior employees to retire this fiscal year, opening the door to call back some of the workers whom he was forced to lay off this month due to cuts in local aid at the state level.Calling the 25 custodians and one electrician who were let go “some of his best employees,” Donovan told the committee that he was forced to make the cuts, which went into effect March 16, based on a seniority clause in the union contract and not on performance.He said that he is already planning to recall the laid-off electrician because of one retirement and expects several more to come that will open the door for custodians.”Some of my best employees walked out the door (due to layoffs),” Donovan told the committee. “I hope to recall a number of those people in the near future. I have heard of approximately 10 retirements that are coming this year.”Forced to cut a large percentage of his budget with just over 70 work days left in the fiscal year, Donovan said he had no choice but to cut from the custodial and maintenance division because their 143 funded positions were the highest in the department at 77 percent of his total payroll.After bumping and bidding due to employees with seniority, Donovan laid of 25 custodians and one electrician, reducing the number of ISD employees in each school proportionately based on building size.Although the cuts were a huge hit to the department, Donovan said he has essentially been managing a depleted staff for his entire two-and-a-half-year stint as director because of a high level of employees out on workers compensation and a daily abuse of available sick time.”This is a cut of 20 percent of personnel in the custodial and maintenance department, it will have an impact on services,” he said. “But the department has been coping for two and a half years with the impact of a 20-percent absentee rate.”Donovan said that he has managed to cut the number of workers out on compensation claims from 16 to nine this year, but he still has 8 percent of his staff out sick on a daily basis, nearly 5 percent above the national average.Donovan was asked before the committee Thursday because some members were concerned that the quality of work at the schools would decline now that several employees would no longer be on the payroll.As a result of the cuts, Donovan has restructured the cleaning schedules to a “team cleaning” method, rather than the “zone cleaning” that the department had followed for years.Now, employees will work directly under the senior custodian to make sure that the most important cleaning jobs are taken care of each day, a move that provides a higher definition of tasks for each employee.The zone-cleaning method essentially broke the schools down into sections assigned to individual custodians. Due to the staffing cuts, this method was not longer feasible.”We are implementing team cleaning, which is the method used widely in the industry,” Donovan said. “Safety first is how we clean. So sanitary areas, bathrooms, cafeterias, water fountains, that sort of thing will be cleaned every day. Classrooms may not be – the trash will always be emptied every day – but it may be thoroughly cleaned ever two days or every third day, depending on the situation.”School Committee members expressed concern that a cut back in cleaning in some areas, specifically classrooms, would pose a health risk to students, but the director assured them that small schools where students eat at their desks would still be cleaned every day and promised to move employees around to fill gaps if a problem arises at a specific school.Donovan said the electrician who was laid off will