CAMDEN — A standing ovation from the Camden-Rockport audience followed the School Administrative District 28 School Board’s unanimous decision Wednesday night not to outsource the school's custodial services for the coming year.

Board Chairman Matthew Dailey began the discussion April 16 at the board’s meeting, held at Camden-Rockport Middle School, by reminding those in attendance that the board was currently in contract negotiations with the custodians and the board could not talk about those negotiations in any way.

Dailey said, to his surprise, that outsourcing custodial services to a private company would result in a $370,000 savings to the school system. SAD 28 and Five-Town Community School District last year sought bids from private cleaning companies.

“That’s a lot of money,” Dailey said.

He also noted that after unemployment was paid and the cost of buying out existing contracts was factored in, the school system would only realize a savings of $150,000.

“I was surprised that we received any bids, let alone one that represented that kind of money,” he said. “One of the points that came up was that custodians add a lot of value. They do add a lot of value. You look at a quarter million dollar savings and you try to be responsible. You try to be conscientious about being on the board. You have to consider what you’re looking at.”

Dailey said saving money was also a consideration given the pending proposal to build a new middle school. He said it doesn’t make sense to say that the money they are paying the custodians doesn’t matter, and then turn around and claim that the same money they are going to save on energy costs, is why they should build a new building. He said there is something logically that doesn’t go together there.

Dailey said that the board has tried to respect everyone’s opinion, but that the board has to be considerate in what they are doing.

“Even though we seem foolish in what we are doing, we are really trying hard to do the right thing. The bidders are providing the same amount of jobs and the same amount of manpower. They’re not going to be doing anything different than what we are doing right now. The difference is all in wages. The board is paying what we negotiated and the public okayed, and I don’t think it’s honorable, or the right thing to do, to basically say let’s subcontract and all these other people who negotiated in good faith are basically going to take it in the end. I would say at this time I’m not in favor of this subcontracting.”

Following motion by board member John Lewis, and two comments from the public in opposition of outsourcing in the future, the board voted unanimously not to outsource, putting the much-debated matter to rest.

In other business, the C-RMS jazz band, under the direction of Craig Ouellette, opened the meeting by playing two numbers for the board and members of the audience that included school staff and the general public, who had all turned out in support of keeping the school’s custodians.

Five Town CSD and SAD 28 Superintendent Elaine Nutter announced that the principal positions at Camden-Rockport Elementary School and Camden-Rockport Middle School had been filled. The board voted to confirm Janet Anderson, currently living in Cumberland, as principal of C-RES, and Jaime Stone of Baltimore, Md., as principal for C-RMS. Their contracts are effective July 1. Theresa Lash has been serving as interim principal at C-RES and Tom Ingraham has been the interim principal at C-RMS.

Reach Chris Wolf at news@penbaypilot.com