HES Facilities Management presented a competing custodial bid to the Hamilton County Schools board focused on local leadership, higher starting wages and investments in equipment and employee incentives.

Brandon McCormack, vice president of business development, introduced HES as a Tennessee‑founded company that limits operations to educational facilities and said the firm has transitioned more than 60 accounts from national providers in the past five years. HES named a proposed on-site leadership team that includes George Donald as the proposed Hamilton County coordinator and Josh Arnold as regional vice president of operations for Tennessee.

HES proposed a staffing model equivalent to 334 full‑time employees (FTEs), an investment of about $1.9 million in new equipment and vehicles, and a wage band the company described as “north of market” in Hamilton County — generally $14.00 to $16.50 per hour, with higher differentials for hard‑to‑staff areas. HES said it validated wages using third‑party labor-market sources and local job-posting platforms.

On employee retention and recruiting, HES pledged a dedicated Chattanooga‑based recruiter plus 10 state recruiters and a layered onboarding and training program with 45- and 90‑day reviews. The HES presentation described tools the company would supply: an operations app with training cards, safety data sheets and multi‑language support; a QR-code work-order system for teachers and principals to report issues; and tele-timekeeping with geofencing to prevent off-site clock-ins.

HES said it would overhire by roughly 10% and maintain a 20% float pool (10% overhire plus 10% of existing staff willing to take extra hours) to cover call-outs and no-shows. The firm described daily production expectations and an inspection regime — managers would perform multiple short inspections per day and provide weekly exception reporting — and proposed an employee incentive fund of $85,000 per year to boost morale.

Brandon McCormack and other HES representatives offered district references and said the company would provide contact information on request; the company also offered a $250,000 preferred‑partner sign‑on bonus and $150,000 in contract‑period contributions to schools ($25,000 per year, as described in the presentation) separate from contract pricing.

During Q&A board members pressed for clarity on the 334‑FTE figure, how the company counts part‑time staff toward that FTE total, the company’s turnover statistics and how it would manage summer restorative cleaning and supplies. HES answered that the 334 figure represents a full‑time equivalent staffing level, that incumbents would be offered work first and that regions and managers would be adjusted to local transportation and traffic patterns.

HES positioned itself as education‑focused and locally managed, and emphasized prior transitions in Tennessee as evidence of the firm’s experience with districts similar in scale to Hamilton County.