Custodian: outsourcing, spending don’t add up

To the Editor:

I write this as an employee of the Red Oak school district until June 30. 

Because of the school district’s decision to outsource custodial work, that’s my last day to receive benefits that I elected to not take last year because I already had insurance through my wife. I’m sure there would have been a couple of others that would have been willing to do the same. I also paid for a life insurance policy that will go up four times the amount of my pay now, but with no cash value on it. Mr. Messinger and the board members did not have a problem outsourcing because they didn’t care about our futures. 

My point to this is we have a new school board that I 

don’t think has a clue to what’s going on. I don’t mean that in a bad way. They may know a lot more than I do, but I know math and dollar figures can look one way on paper and then when the final results are in they are nowhere near what we figure. 

I say if they would put the effort they have in building a new school and update the things we have, it would be more responsible. I’m a taxpayer and I think there are some shady deals being made when you think $300,000 is a lot of money for keeping the schools clean and doing light maintenance. In some cases we have saved a lot of money, whereas now they will pay (a big company). If you read the Red Oak Express on board spending, you see they ain’t cheap. 

If you think no one has their hand in the school district’s pocket, you need to get real. You may not see how I do, but I don’t know what kind of lights cost over a million dollars for a small school district. We spend more money on stuff that will only go unused – like the cage down at the middle school. It looks like a prison yard. I could go on and on and show you the figures that the public sees are never the same in the end. If they don’t find a different way of having our improvements made, then the district will be bankrupt in a year. 

I don’t plan on staying in Red Oak so I can care less what they think of me. They outsourced my job, and we were the lowest paid custodians in the state, or close to it. I would clean the schools myself for a lot cheaper than that, and the school is providing the equipment to this company, FBG, to do the job. Maybe the city will come together and send this board packing as well. 

Victor Audie Stephens

Red Oak