Board asked to hand custodial work to an outside company

What happened

The agenda for the September 29, 2026 special meeting asks the board to approve subcontracting the district's custodial services to an outside company effective November 1, 2026, and to approve a settlement with the East Orange Educational Support Professionals' Association that ends the subcontracting negotiations and also settles the union's COVID-19 overtime lawsuit. The board opened this path on March 17, 2026 when it approved a resolution to consider subcontracting.

Why it matters to families

The people who clean and maintain East Orange school buildings are longtime district employees, many named in reduction-in-force lists the board approved in April and May 2026. Replacing them with a contractor changes who is in school buildings every day and settles a live lawsuit at the same time. The district's own budget presentation counts $2,480,112 of 2026-27 savings from this change.

The evidence

The September 29, 2026 special meeting agenda lists a resolution to implement subcontracting of custodial services effective November 1, 2026 and a settlement agreement terminating and resolving subcontracting negotiations with the support professionals' association and the parties' COVID-19 overtime litigation, and recites the March 17, 2026 resolution that started the process. Approved minutes were not yet posted, so the outcome of the vote is not in the collected record.

The source