Zachary Suri, Contributing Photographer

When Alder Frank Redente Jr. was growing up in New Haven in the 1980s, he said there were four practical career paths for New Haven Public Schools graduates without a college degree — police department, fire department, public works and school custodians.

“Systematically, over the last 25 years, we’ve destroyed all these good union jobs,” Redente told the News.

The future of custodian jobs in the school system was the subject of a recent Board of Alders Education Committee meeting at city hall. 

At the contentious hearing on Wednesday evening, Madeline Negron, superintendent of the school system, presented the district’s plan to address decades of deferred maintenance, which includes rehiring in-house union trades positions privatized in 2009. 

Representatives from the custodial workers union and teachers union, along with parents, teachers and custodians themselves, echoed these calls and demanded an end to the privatization of custodial management altogether. 

Tom DeLucia, president of Local 287 — the union representing the custodial workers who remained after the 2009 privatization —  told the committee that privatization is responsible for the lack of action on many maintenance issues. 

The vast majority of the district’s 58 buildings are well past their industry-standard expected lifespan, Negron told the committee. The cost of emergency repairs for deferred maintenance has become so high that preventative maintenance is “nearly impossible” with current funding and staffing levels, Michael Carter, interim chief operating officer of New Haven Public Schools, said.

Over 4,000 work orders were entered between March 1, 2023, and Sept. 19, 2024, according to the district’s presentation at the hearing. The highest demand categories are HVAC repairs, carpentry, electrical work and plumbing. 

In the last school year, New Haven Public Schools spent a total of $58,500 on mold testing and remediation. One month into the new school year, the district has already spent $164,000 on remediation and testing. 

Redente, who also serves as a youth development coordinator at Fair Haven School, described teachers at the school having to cut rulers to create makeshift locks for broken bathroom stall doors. 

In 2009, amidst budget shortfalls, the district cut the number of custodians and tradespeople from 154 to 100, hiring a series of outside contractors to manage custodial work and repairs. 

The district would like to hire 33 additional trades positions, but NHPS does not have the funds, Carter told the committee. That would more than quadruple the number of currently available trades positions.

Negron also raised the possibility of school consolidation and closure. She requested additional funds from the city to support repairs and hiring. 

“We must adapt to the needs of the community in order to deliver the education we know all of our students deserve,” Negron said. “Substantial new investment will be required.” 

Negron advocated a new capital projects plan similar to the billion-dollar state-city bond project in the late 1990s. This time though, Negron emphasized the importance of including funds for preventative maintenance. 

She placed most of the responsibility for the maintenance crisis on past district leadership and lack of funding. The district is facing a “fiscal cliff” as no additional funding seems to be forthcoming from the city, state or federal government, she said. 

“Nobody at this table is responsible for this situation,” she told the committee. 

Salvatore Punzo, committee chairman and former New Haven Public Schools principal, praised the system before the positions were privatized and advocated for returning custodial and trades positions in-house.

DeLucia praised the district’s plan but took issue with their description of the staffing crisis. The district has been short more than a dozen custodial workers for years, he told the committee. Currently, 17 positions are vacant. 

DeLucia blamed privatization, specifically ABM, the custodial management company that the school system contracts to manage the district’s facilities. The union placed flyers in the chambers condemning ABM as “Awfully Bad Management” and calling for the district to end its contract with ABM and return the positions to Local 287.

“Private companies have destroyed New Haven,” he told the committee. “They have destroyed good jobs.”

DeLucia told the committee that temporary ABM employees do not take “pride” in their work and do not “care” about New Haven Public Schools students the way his members do. ABM consistently fails to fulfill supply orders from building managers, leaving schools with little to no toilet paper, paper towels and cleaning supplies, he said. 

Some work orders have languished in the system for seven to eight years, Dennis Darnell, vice president of Local 287, told the committee.

“At some point before something seriously goes wrong, these things need to get fixed,” he said. 

Jamar Alleyne, director of facilities for ABM, defended the company’s work to the committee, blaming supply issues on city contracting delays and the lack of a district warehouse. 

Faced with a lack of funds, the company is forced to concentrate on maintenance emergencies that directly threaten student health and safety, he said. Alleyne also promised to work closely with Local 287 to address communications issues between the union and ABM management. 

DeLucia told the committee that privatization prevents his members from being able to work their way into higher-paid management positions, which are held by ABM employees. 

At least three other custodians reiterated these concerns about ABM management. Teachers from across the district, including Leslie Blatteau ’97 GRD ’07, president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, also spoke in support of their custodians. 

Privatization, DeLucia said, had not only failed to provide the necessary maintenance but had failed to save the district money.

“​​I remember the days where we had our own in-house based guys … they fixed that thing the same day, no work orders, no complicated calls outside the building,” Redente, who has worked within the public school system for over 30 years, said. “So to bring in a private company from another town or another state and put them in charge of a building just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Alder Sarah Miller ’03 expressed frustration that the district’s plan is dependent on funding that can only be raised in a year with the upcoming state legislative session. The district’s presentation constituted “pieces of a plan,” she said. 

While she expressed general support for the union and district’s proposal to reverse privatization, she expressed concern that the district did not have a plan to address immediate health and safety concerns. 

“I’m … not satisfied that we have a humane strategy that any kid, that any family would be comfortable with,” she said. “I didn’t really hear a plan for making sure that everybody has toilet paper.”

The Board of Alders Education Committee meets on the fourth Wednesday of each month at 6:00 p.m.