School district administrators and custodians were recently surveyed for feedback pertaining to a restructuring of custodial services at Oregon-based Beaverton School District. In an effort to save budgets, the district restructured its custodial services last summer, reducing their numbers and shortening the calendar, as well as moving to a central management system. Previously, principals supervised their building's custodians.

After a year of operating under the revised system, the district hired an outside management team to assess the process by anonymously surveying custodians, school principals and district level administrators. The results were not favorable, according to reports from The Oregonian. For instance:

• When asked if the process used to develop the plan was appropriate, 147 people disagreed and 9 agreed.
• When asked if current custodial services were better or worse, 138 said worse and 26 said better.
• Questions whether the system for accountability been appropriate revealed 137 no's and 21 yes's.
• Inquiries about whether there was a need for the custodial restructuring found 97 no's and 47 yes's.
• And finally, comments from the interviews included concerns about morale and trust.

"Most believe the situation can be improved, but it will take time, hard work, patience and a renewed focus on the goals and values of the District. Most believe relationships need to be healed before progress can be made on the operational issues. Some believe too much relational harm has been done," according to the survey.

Last spring, the school district sent layoff notices to 50 of its 168 custodians, catching many by surprise. The workers' weren't being laid off but their positions were being eliminated. Originally, the restructuring plan would have moved many custodians to new schools and cut their school year from 260 days to 185 days.

As complaints rose, the district modified the plan and decided only new hires would work 185 days a year.

The survey and interviews were the first two steps in the district's assessment of the changes. The third step is to form a working group, which includes custodial staff and principals, to focus on making improvements.