At invitation of union custodians
PPS superintendent, board members tour schools
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
In early October, five of the seven
Portland Public Schools (PPS) board
members accepted a union invitation
to tour district schools and see first-
hand the work custodians and cafeteria
workers do.
Service Employees International
Union (SEIU) Local 503 organized the
tours to humanize the workers in the
eyes of decisionmakers. To the union’s
surprise, newly-appointed PPS Super-
intendent Carole Smith joined board
members Ruth Adkins and Bobbie Re-
gan on one of the tours Oct. 5 —
Llewellyn Elementary in the Sellwood
neighborhood.
SEIU is in bargaining over a new
contract covering 287 full-time and 17
part-time custodians, plus 188 nutri-
tion service workers. The union is pro-
posing only a cost-of-living wage ad-
justment; custodian pay currently
ranges from $13.24 to $22.69 an hour,
while cafeteria workers make $9.62 to
$13.96 an hour. The district, on the
other hand, is demanding custodians
give up almost one-third of their pay.
Under the district proposal, the top-
paid custodians would make $15.52 an
hour — a $7.17-an-hour pay cut. And
new hires would make $2.54 an hour
less than they do now.
“There’s no way our members can
take that kind of pay cut,” said Mark
Freimark, head custodian at Llewellyn
and a member of the union bargaining
team. Freimark, 46, makes $19.55 an
hour after 23 years at the district, and
he’s one of about 130 individuals who
agreed to return when PPS offered re-
instatement to in-house custodians it
terminated en masse in 2002.
“We’re hoping that for board mem-
bers to see the work we do — and how
it contributes to the learning environ-
ment — will make a difference,”
Freimark said.
At Llewellyn, with Freimark as
guide, Smith and the two board mem-
bers got an education. Earlier in the
day board members visited schools
where custodians are understaffed;
Llewellyn was chosen as a counter-ex-
ample. The school is noticeably clean,
with grateful teachers, and students
who have a connection to Freimark.
“Our building is clean for the first
time in many years,” one teacher tells
the visitors. “I can concentrate on
teaching, instead of cleaning.”
“What’s my name?” Freimark asks
a class full of kids. “Mark!” they yell.
“What do I do?” he asks another
group, lining up after recess. “Clean
the school!” they say all at once, ex-
cept one boy who yells, “You’re our
waiter!”
“Waiter?” a board member wonders
aloud. Freimark explains: At lunch-
time, clearing plates before they end
on the floor, he jokes with the kids:
“Hi, I’m Mark, I’ll be your waiter to-
day.” He opens their milk, cleans their
spills, and reads lunchbox notes from
OCTOBER 19, 2007
Llewellyn Elementary School lead custodian Mark Freimark (right) explains the workings, maintenance and safety
features of the boilers to some of Portland Public School’s top officials — from left, School Board member Ruth
Adkins, Superintendent Carole Smith, and Board member Bobbie Regan.
parents for those still learning to read.
He also finds and returns coats left
on the playground, hands out tissues,
ties kids’ shoes, or cleans and returns
shoes when they step in dog poop.
Given the chance, Freimark talks
with evident pride about his job. His
day starts at 6:30 a.m. when he opens
up the building, turns on the lights, and
fires up the boiler. Next he lets the
school cat out of the library, sets up the
cafeteria for breakfast, runs the water
in drinking fountains to flush the pipes,
and checks his box for requests from
teachers — more chairs, or something
moved in a classroom. When it’s light
enough outside to see, he walks the
playground picking up trash and
sweeping bark chips back to where
they belong. He goes online to see if
the governor has ordered flags flown at
half-mast for another fallen soldier,
and hoists the flag in the proper way.
He checks the boiler, drains the air
compressor, helps out at breakfast,
locks the building doors after school
starts, and checks with the school sec-
retary for special requests. Maybe a
kid has thrown up in the hall, or he
needs to let a delivery driver in, call
maintenance, set up a table for some-
one. He sweeps the halls, empties trash
cans, refills paper towel dispensers,
scrubs and buffs the gym, climbs a
steel rung ladder, opens hatches and
checks roof drains to make sure they’re
unclogged.
“We have ownership of our build-
ing,” Freimark says. “That’s what ‘cus-
todian’ means — custody. I’m respon-
sible for the safety and security of this
building and all its inhabitants.”
On the way out to see the play-
ground, the visitors pass a trio of
moms in the hall waiting for the bell to
ring. Conscious of his audience,
Freimark chooses his words carefully:
“Have you noticed any differences in
the school?” He doesn’t say it, but
what he means is — any difference
since the district brought back its in-
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
house custodial work force, under
court order. The moms don’t need any
prompting; an outpouring begins.
“Before, you never knew who the
janitors were from one day to another,”
says one mom, the president of the
school’s fundraising foundation. “It’s
just so much cleaner now,” says an-
other.
“It’s like night and day,” agrees
Principal Steve Powell. “Now, we’ve
got custodians that take pride in what
they do.”
Freimark can roll off with ease the
names of the school’s most famous
graduates, or tell of the time he saved
the school from a plague of mice.
Freimark trapped 96 of them, and fig-
ured out where — in the 50,000-
square-foot building — the mice were
getting in. The holes were too big on
the grate in front of an air vent. He put
in a work order for a smaller gauge
grate to be installed; problem solved.
Freimark was buoyant after the
visit, saying he felt Superintendent
Smith really listened.
“It’s clear that he and the two other
custodians take pride in keeping the
entire school in tip-top shape,” Smith
said about the tour in a press statement
published by the union.
Whether anything will change in
bargaining remains to be seen. The
wage cut proposal was presented be-
fore Smith was appointed.
Having met with custodians and
cafeteria workers, will the new super-
intendent stick to the district’s dracon-
ian contract proposal? Will board
members endorse a one-third pay cut
for workers like Freimark?
SEIU staff Representative Casey
Filice said the union likely won’t know
if Smith intends to change course until
at least the Oct. 23 bargaining session.
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