Cape Girardeau school official wants janitors' pay more competitive

While turnover traditionally has been high in janitorial work, recruiting and keeping custodians in the Cape Girardeau School District is becoming a bigger challenge, a district official said.

A starting wage of $8.35 an hour and at least three years without a raise aren't helping matters, said Neil Glass, the Cape Girardeau School District's director of administrative services.

Glass recently expressed his concerns to the Cape Girardeau School Board, asking that the district boost wages and make them more competitive with janitorial services at other businesses in the community.

"We have limited people that apply for those vacant positions, and the people who do, when they find out what the first step is on the custodial salary schedule, they say there's no use going any farther," he said in an interview this week. "We want to recruit and retain the best individuals we possibly can, and I feel the salary at this point is detrimental to that."

Glass said his informal survey found custodial pay in the western part of Missouri was about $1 an hour higher than in Southeast Missouri. Nationally, custodians on average earned $10.56 an hour, or $21,970 annually in 2009, according to the latest figures available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Turnover rates in janitorial services are among the highest of any industry, annually running 300 percent or higher. Glass said the school district posted five or six vacancies last year. As of Wednesday, 40 custodians maintained the district's 10 buildings, with all positions filled.

But in the face of budget cuts last year, the district eliminated two custodial positions, and Glass said the loss is felt at the schools.

"I think we are maintaining our buildings, but we do suffer a little bit because of that," he said. "We're not losing a lot yet, but it could get there in a hurry if we don't address something in these salaries."

With higher turnover, janitors are doing more with less, Glass said.

In the Jackson School District, the starting wage for custodians is $8.51 an hour. Wade Bartels, the district's chief financial officer, said while turnover is higher in custodial services than in other support areas, he has not seen an exodus of janitors in recent years. He said the district has been able to offer small raises to its staff of 40 janitors.

By comparison, the Joplin (Mo.) School District pays a starting wage of $12.86, according to Mike Johnson, director of buildings, grounds and transportation. He said the district is probably at the upper end of the spectrum in the state for janitorial employee wages and that Cape Girardeau public schools are paying at the "tail end of the spectrum." While Joplin has a fairly high turnover rate in custodial services, Johnson said it would be "mission impossible" to retain janitors on the kind of wages paid in Cape Girardeau schools.

"They're underpaid down there, and I feel for them," he said.

The Cape Girardeau School District cut positions earlier this year as it worked to balance its budget, and teachers' wages were frozen. School districts across the state were forced to make tough choices, and in education some areas are more expendable than others.

"We made a conscious effort when we looked at our support staff that we didn't want to take faculty out of classrooms," Johnson said. "So far our [custodians] have stepped up; we're hanging in there, but our morale has taken a beating."

That's much the same story in the Cape Girardeau district, Glass said. A projected double-digit increase in health insurance costs probably won't do much for morale and for turnover, Glass concedes. That's why he is appealing to the school board to raise custodian wages, including starting pay, by at least $1 an hour if possible.

"I am conscious the district's picture is bleak right now ... but we're doing a disservice to our buildings if we don't maintain a level of professionalism we expect from senior and midlevel custodians," he said. "To recruit those kind of people we have to raise salaries."

mkittle@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

301 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO

614 E. Adams St., Jackson, MO