A concerned community member brought up a valid concern about the number of janitors at Eisenhower Middle High School during last week's meeting of the Warren County School District's board of directors that morphed into something much larger.
Resident Dot Knapp's concerns are of a serious nature. Unclean surfaces are a breeding ground for germs.
But due to a retirement and use of sick and personal time by the employees, the district finds its cleaning services short-staffed at Eisenhower. Instead of the contracted four janitors, there are only two left to clean.
What is just as alarming to us is if the district used substitutes to clean, "they'd blow through the sub budget in a minute," according to Superintendent Brandon Hufnagel.
At best, this is poor planning and budgeting. The cleaning line in the budget was obviously grossly underestimated before the school year began.
And while we understand that cuts had to be made to accomplish this year's budget, the cleaning contract portion is so tight that the absence of two employees has thrown the whole budgeting process into question.
Employees are going to use their sick and personal time. The district's proposal to offer an incentive for them not to use time doesn't address the problem.
It simply sweeps the dirt under the rug.