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Mayors warn DOE school grounds contracts underfunded; council explores stopgap assistance for 2025
Summary
Council members debated who should fund and manage school grounds maintenance after multiple contract protests and delays; mayors discussed using mayoral resources or revolving funds for short-term help while urging the Department of Education to resolve procurement and staffing issues.
Mayors at the Jan. 22 meeting raised repeated concerns that Department of Education (DOE) grass- and grounds-maintenance contracts are underfunded and that procurement protests and emergency contracts this month may leave schools with uncut grounds.
Council President Mayor Luis Rivera and several mayors said DOE’s scope-of-work and contractor payments have historically been too small to attract or retain vendors, citing past per-school allocations that contractors and mayors described as inadequate. Rivera said some villages will likely receive calls from principals asking for help now, not later, and urged mayors to be prepared to respond.
Why it matters: Mayors said uncut school grounds are an immediate operational problem affecting students and public safety. Several mayors argued the issue stems from inadequate DOE funding per contract and procurement timing rather than a lack of will among vendors or mayors.
What was said Multiple mayors described the old “grounds maintenance” allocations as insufficient — one example cited in the meeting was roughly $300 per month for a school, which mayors said did not cover fuel, labor and equipment. Mayors reported a pending protest on DOE’s current grass-cutting contract and said an emergency 90-day contract awaits gubernatorial approval in some cases.
Short-term options discussed included: (1) village-level use of existing revolving funds to buy fuel, supplies or hire local contractors; (2) mayoral coordination with PTOs and volunteers for interim maintenance; and (3) asking the finance committee to identify unobligated school-maintenance money that could be reprogrammed for immediate use if procurement limits permit.
Constraints and cautions President Rivera said the council’s new executive director and procurement-certified staff will require that any use of council funds follow procurement law; the council will not authorize ad-hoc payments that violate procurement rules. Several mayors said staffing and equipment shortages — not just money — limit what a mayor can do practically to maintain multiple schools in large villages.
Next steps Rivera asked the executive director to explore mechanisms for short-term assistance if unused DOE funds can be legally transferred or if the council can execute purchase orders under existing rules. He asked mayors to document requests from schools and to save written communications about procurement protests so the council can follow up with DOE and the governor’s office.
