The district has announced that it will no longer be considering a partnership with SSC to outsource CMG staff. This statement is following a controversial Board of Education meeting earlier this week, March 17, where community members, teachers, and many others rallied with CMG staff to express their opposition to the proposed contract. The decision was announced to District 99 staff yesterday, March 20, in an email from Superintendent Hank Thiele.
SSC Services for Education is a provider of facility maintenance in educational spaces including custodial, grounds, facilities, and construction management. The company is a branch of the Compass Group, a company that also oversees Chartwells which District 99 currently partners with for cafeteria services.
District 99 announced to staff March 14 that they would be seeking a partnership with SSC to manage the district’s Custodial, Maintenance, and Grounds (CMG) staff. However, less than a week later, another announcement was made stating that this partnership would no longer be pursued. The reason for the change is the sudden termination of the South Bend Community School Corp (SBCSC)’s contract with SSC.
“SSC, the firm being considered to provide CMG services for District 99, lost a major client yesterday. The client, a large school district in Indiana, is reportedly ending their relationship due to cost and quality concerns,” Dr. Thiele said.
The Indiana school cited that partnering with SSC instead of insourcing custodial services cost them more than $10 million over the course of three years. When SBCSC tried to negotiate their contract for a lower price, SSC told them that this could be attained through “scope adjustments,” raising concerns about the quality of the services.
“Beyond the cost advantages we were expecting by partnering with SSC, we were seeking a continued high level of quality and stability of service,” Dr. Thiele said. “What we were hoping to achieve by partnering with SSC is no longer a given, and more time would have been needed to research this organization.”
Originally, the district had planned for six weeks to notify staff, address concerns, invite SSC to speak on their plan with the Board, and ultimately decide on an agreement. With the recent news, however, the Board examined if this original timeline would be sufficient.
“There is not enough time to address the questions raised by our staff and to fully vet SSC to ensure that they will deliver on their promises to us. We are not willing to rush this process,” Dr. Thiele said.
The email also indicated other reasons for ending the district’s consideration of the partnership.
“Given the SSC news and the recent events impacting our district, pursuing this partnership is no longer a priority at this time,” Dr. Thiele said.
Dr. Thiele explained that the district would look internally to find efficiencies and would provide additional training to guarantee CMG staff members’ success. He ended the message by thanking the engagement the community has had with the district this past week and by punctuating the importance of CMG.
“CMG staff members are a valued part of the D99 community,” Dr. Thiele said.
