By By ERIN VER BERKMOES / Niles Daily Star
NILES - It was a hard decision to make but the Brandywine Board of Education voted 6 to 1 at a special meeting on Monday evening to contract out the custodial services of the district.
Damaske added that to address the shortfall two years ago the district laid off several custodial workers which contributed to a decline of its facility cleanliness. The district is looking to return a high quality of facility cleanliness, but in a cost-efficient manner.
The district received six bid proposals after getting 11 requests for proposal information. Of the six bids they received three of them were on the high end of the scale and three of them were on the low end of the scale.
The contracted cleaning services would replace five full time and two part-time employees and the district purchased custodial supplies.
The board approved the contract for Great Lakes Cleaning, Inc. with an amount of $272,000 for their services, which is lower than the current $313,000 it costs the district to do the services in house. If the manpower was added back in to the in house budget, that would cost the district about $443,000.
Great Lakes Cleaning Inc. will commence their contracted cleaning services on July 1, with their contract running two years, with an option for the district to extend it up to three years additional one year periods.
The current Brandywine custodial employees will be given the chance to apply for employment with Great Lakes Cleaning.