More schools look at contracting out

Portland Public Schools is not the only school district looking to save money by contracting out. Estacada School District, Rainier School District and Douglas County School District have also weighed proposals to privatize, report officials of the independent Oregon School Employees Association (OSEA).

In Lincoln County, which has a county-wide school district, union members defeated in May an earlier proposal to privatize school bus services. Now, citing a $2.4 million cut from the state, the district is again calling for private companies to bid on bus service, and may contract out food service as well. More than 100 district employees' jobs are at risk: 65 bus drivers and 40 cafeteria workers.

Victor Musial, OSEA's director of field operations and organizing, says Lincoln County School District Superintendent Irv Nikolai also privatized custodial, cafeteria, and transportation services at Forest Grove when he headed that district several years ago.

Food service management in Douglas County has already been contracted out to Sodexho Marriott. Now the French multinational is primed to take the whole operation, while Canadian multinational Laidlaw is the likely contender to take the district's school bus service.

The district's drivers reportedly say they won't work for Laidlaw, which is known for its low wages and anti-union climate.

In response to the threat of privatization, in mid-July OSEA began collecting signatures to recall school board members. Three thousand were collected in the first week; they have 90 days to complete the signature-gathering effort.

Musial thinks the district got such a late start looking for contractors that they wouldn't be able to replace in-house workers until Nov. 1. That's because by law, they can't enter into a contract with a private company until bargaining with their existing employees' union is considered concluded.

At Estacada School District, 12 custodians may have narrowly escaped a proposal to contract out their jobs, said OSEA field representative Dan Morris. The district administration put out a call for bids from qualified rehabilitation facilities, which are given preference under state law. But only one bid was received, from Tualatin Valley Workshop, for $500,000. That wouldn't have saved the district much money, and Morris thinks arguments against privatization by the union and its supporters were well-received at the July 22 school board meeting.

Morris said any decision to contract out would have to get the approval of the seven-member school board. They would have to make a decision soon.

"With school 40 days away, they're getting up against a tight timeline," he said.

Meanwhile, in Rainier, OSEA organizer Kim Bonner reports that the school district brought to the bargaining table a proposal to contract out a seven-person custodial department. Bonner thinks the threat was made as a bargaining tactic, and notes that the district hasn't put out a request for bids yet. But the union is not taking any chances, and is fighting the idea in bargaining as well as in the public, with informational pickets and a community petition drive.

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