Memphis-Shelby County Schools committee hears request to extend custodial contracts through Dec. 2025

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools procurement committee on May 1 heard a request from district staff to extend existing custodial contracts that cover portions of Zone 1 and the former HES zone through Dec. 31, 2025, so all zone contracts come up for renewal at the same time.

The extension covers the ServiceMaster portion for the HES/original HES zone and the Parkour portion of the split Zone 1 contract. Michelle Stewart, the district official presenting the item, said the extensions would align contract expirations with Zones 2 and 3 and allow the district to “get back on track” with a single renewal cycle next calendar year.

District staff showed the committee an aggregate cost figure for the custodial contracts: Stewart cited a total cost for the HES extension and related Zone 1 work as roughly $4,025,000. She said this is an administrative extension request rather than a new procurement meaning the district would keep current service arrangements and pricing for the short extension.

Committee members asked several operational questions about vendor performance, staffing, cleanliness scores and how schools are evaluated. Stewart said all three custodial vendors that serve the district are meeting stated goals and that monthly cleanliness scores are “hovering around between 92–94%” and that vendors reported 100% staffing levels at the time of reporting. She said building engineers and custodial supervisors both perform walkthroughs that generate the scores and that principals also provide input.

Board members pressed for more granular evidence. Board Member Williams asked for the “principal satisfaction” data for individual schools; Stewart said she would provide scorecards showing school-level results. Several committee members also asked for the metric definitions and for a clearer explanation of who completes each component of the score (building engineers, custodial supervisors, principal input) because different raters can produce variation in scores.

Committee members also raised questions about a pilot at Caldwell Guthrie in which a single school was temporarily pulled from contracted service for an in‑house experiment. Stewart said the pilot lacked dedicated on-site management (the building engineer had multiple duties) and “was not set up for success,” and the district is returning that school to a contracted vendor (Parkour) and folding it back into Zone 1.

Several board members asked about frontline pay and hours for custodial workers; Stewart said the district set a minimum rate at $15 per hour for those contracts and that typical shifts are eight hours with overtime for emergencies. Board members requested more explicit documentation of hours worked, pay ranges and principal satisfaction on a school-by-school basis.

The committee did not record a formal vote during the discussion; staff said the item will be placed on the board meeting agenda for formal action. The administration said it will provide the requested scorecards and staffing/pay details before that meeting.

Ending: Committee members emphasized the need for school‑level transparency — particularly principal satisfaction and the building-level metric definitions — before final board action. Stewart said she will circulate the requested scorecards and metrics to the board.