Summary:
NJSBA SURVEY-SUB-CONTRACTING OF SERVICES

• 250 (42.1%) of the state's 594 operating school districts have responded to NJSBA's survey on subcontracting of services to date. (The figure represents an exceptionally high response rate for a survey of this type.)

Status of Sub-contracting in New Jersey's Schools

• 18.3% of the responding school districts have had preliminary discussions of privatization of services.
• 17.5% of the school districts are currently investigating or actively considering privatizing one or more of the following services:
  • Transportation
  • Custodial
  • Cafeteria
  • Other (including payroll, clerical and business)
• 68.3% of the districts responding have entered into full or partial subcontracting for one or more services.
• The survey identified 271 sub-contracting agreements among these districts.
  • The most common service fully sub-contracted is cafeteria (132 agreements) followed by transportation (87 agreements).
  • The service most commonly sub-contracted on a partial basis is transportation (60 agreements) followed by custodial/maintenance (26 agreements)
• 22.8% of the districts responding to the survey had considered, but did not pursue subcontracting one or more types of services.
  • 66.1% of the rejected privatization plans were in the area of custodial services; 48.2% involved food services.
  • The most common reason for rejecting privatization was "community opposition," cited by 46.9% of the districts, followed by "board concern for supervision" (42.2%), and "savings were not significant" (37.5%).

• The responding districts reported saving a total of $28 million through privatization.
  • That figure is equivalent to-
    • 857 new teachers, at the average starting salary of $32,673
    • 20,000 computers, at $1,500 each
    • 400,000 high school biology textbooks
• 111 of the responding districts reported the area to which they directed their savings.
  • Education programming and curriculum (42.3%)
  • Lowering the school district budget and controlling property taxes (28.8%)
  • Facilities (10.1%)
  • Staffing (8.1%)
  • Classroom technology (7.2%)

• 132 of the responding districts indicated whether or not they had made accommodations for employees affected by privatization.
• Of those responding, over 90% built in job/benefits protection or continuation for employees, such as-
  • Retaining employment after privatization.
  • Guaranteeing salary and benefit levels.
  • Negotiated severance with school district and promise of employment with contractor
  • Employment with contractor and continuation of health insurance
  • Guaranteed employment with subcontractor for a minimum period
  • Right to job interview with contractor
  • Retaining employees approaching retirement
  • Contracting services only as employees resigned or retired.

Satisfaction with Sub-Contracting

• Districts were asked to describe their level of satisfaction with sub-contracted services using a range of 1 to 5, with 1 signifying "poor" and 5 indicating "excellent." On average, districts gave the sub-contracted services a ranking of 4, "good."
• 22 districts indicated plans to change their current sub-contractor. Of these districts, 12 indicated plans to switch to a different contractor; 10 said they intended to return to "in-house" services.

The New Jersey School Boards Association is a federation of more than 600 local boards of education. Established more than 80 years ago, NJSBA represents the education and related health and safety interests of New Jersey's 1.2 million public school students and advocates the positions of the state's local school districts. The Association also provides inservice training and technical assistance to the state's 4,800 local board of education members. School board members, who serve without compensation, are the largest group of elected and appointed public officials in the state.