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Board hears custodial contract transition, maintenance backlogs and staffing shortfalls
Summary
District staff reported a custodial contract transition to three vendors starting Oct. 1, maintenance is completing roughly 55% of work orders with HVAC and plumbing generating the most requests, and the maintenance director role was confirmed as Bobby Lucky.
District operations staff told the board the custodial contract will transition to three new vendors on Oct. 1, with a major load‑in weekend scheduled for Sept. 27. "The new contract... begins October 1st," a staff member said, and managers are working to ensure vendors have staff and background checks completed before the switch.
Maintenance staff reported roughly 6,000 work orders submitted in June–July and a little over 3,000 completed in that period — about a 55% completion rate at that peak time, which staff attributed to summer-to-school-year transitions in demand. Staff noted that work-order closure times are improving in some areas and that about 91% of closed work orders are completed within two weeks in recent reporting.
The district highlighted HVAC and plumbing as the top categories for service calls. Staff corrected a prior figure for an HVAC control-proposal: the total proposal amount is $432,554 (not the earlier-cited $327,000). To address HVAC shortages, the district has retained two local contractors (Lowcountry Air and Mott Mechanical) and has hired outside crews for priority sites when needed.
Staff said 87% of positions in maintenance are filled but eight openings remain, concentrated in HVAC and plumbing. The meeting also confirmed Bobby Lucky as the district's maintenance director; staff said he had previously served as acting director and is now permanent.
On ABM, the district said it issued and then extended a notice to cure and has engaged two outside contractors to address unresolved HVAC units; costs for those repairs will be charged through ABM per contract provisions.
The board requested comparative month‑to‑month visuals for work-order trends and discussed recruitment and contract measures to increase in‑house capacity and reduce reliance on outside vendors. No formal actions were taken.
The presentation closed with a brief discussion of possible cellular/broadband tower sites at two school campuses to improve reception; staff said they would continue exploring options with consultants and state broadband initiatives.
