Members mobilize over union issues
In Calvert County
CAESS President Steven Brooks's testimony to the Calvert Board of Education
I am Steven Brooks, President of the Calvert Association of Educational Support Staff. Our Union represents all Calvert Support Staff and especially all the Before and After Care Program employees.
I wanted to tell the Board how concerned the CAESS Executive Board and our membership are about this situation. We understand the need to work within a budget to maintain the quality of Calvert County Public Schools. However, privatization of school services is not the way it has been proven time and again that PRIVATIZATION COSTS IT DOESN'T PAY. I don't want to take the time to make the arguments against contracting-out we will provide those in meetings with the CCPS Executive Staff.
Our biggest concern is that CAESS was completely blindsided by this proposal to privatize daycare operations.
As you all know, Calvert County runs on rumors and that is how we found out about this proposal.
When we asked CCPS Leadership about this we were told it was only being discussed.
You can imagine our grave concern when we found out shortly thereafter that the Request for Proposal was already written and to be published in the local newspapers.
This is not the way to continue the partnership we have fostered and built with CCPS.
We look forward, as a union, to continue discussions to stop this proposal and protect our members' jobs and benefits.
