Outsourcing and sub-contracting reduce accountability, so workers and children suffer. Sub-par wages only attract workers who are unable to gain employment elsewhere. These events sadden us all.

Janitor accused of assaulting two girls:
Middle schoolers say he lured them home; HISD says a background check didn't find '97 case

JASON SPENCER and MÓNICA GUZMÁN
Houston Chronicle - November 18, 2005

A Houston middle school janitor who faced a child sexual assault charge eight years ago as a teenager is now accused of luring two students to his home and sexually assaulting them, police said Thursday.

Johnny Lee Wright, a 26-year-old janitor at Attucks Middle School in northeast Houston, was arrested Wednesday at his home in the 7800 block of Corinth and charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of sexual assault of a child. Police also charged him with possessing more than 4 grams of cocaine with intent to deliver.

The two female students, ages 13 and 14, told investigators they met Wright in October and he invited them to his home, where he assaulted them, police said.

Attucks is one of 30 Houston Independent School District campuses that contracts its custodial services to Aramark, which in turn farms the work out to Aztec, the company that hired Wright, said HISD spokesman Terry Abbott. About 130 Aztec employees work in those schools, he said.

Aztec officials could not be reached Thursday for comment.

Harris County records show Wright was charged with felony aggravated sexual assault of a child in 1997.

In early April State Representative Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston) introduced HB 2507 to get the Health Departments of Harris County and the City of Houston to enforce Health regulations for Taco Stands just like they are for major restaurants. Which would mean that the Taco Stands would have to have running water and restrooms. This requirement would put all of the Stands out of business. On Thursday April 21st 106 WFA members had a protest in front of Mr. Bohac Houston office. We are now meeting with Bohac on May 3rd in Austin to try to get him to withdraw the bill from consideration this session. We will also try to get the the two Democratic Co-Sponsor to withdraw their names from the legislation.There is not a Senate sponsor yet but we are meeting on Tuesday with Senator Mario Gallegos (D-Houston) to gain his support if it is needed.

All unions try to help their members but no one covers all the bases like SEIU, Local 100. When MISD School Bus aide and Local 100 Co-Steward Minnie Hubbard joined Local 100 she joined to fight to get an unnecessary and extreme pay cut restored but the pay cut caused some personal problems.
She started having trouble paying all of her bills and on top of that her ex-husband ran up a lot of debt in her name and foreclosure threatened to take her house.
Minnie had met Dallas ACORN lead organizer Cledell Kemp at a union meeting and called her for advice. Ms. Kemp reassured her that she was a long way away from foreclosure and referred her to an ACORN Housing Credit counselor.  Fantaye Akbar is working with Minnie to get her credit straightened out.
Cledell says, “Minnie is happy as a Lark”. Local 100 understands that problems on the job leads to problems off the job and has the resources and connections to help its members with more  problems than most unions.

Are HISD and Aramark cooking the books to feast on federal breakfast subsidies?

The cafeteria workers at Jefferson Davis High School run their breakfast program with factorylike precision. Into the big blue Igloo coolers go foil-wrapped taco pockets, cartons of milk and boxes of apple juice. Each kid gets one breakfast. Each classroom gets one cooler.
The coolers are shipped to classrooms at Davis just before the bell rings; by the time morning announcements are over, the kids have brought them back, laden with crumpled foil and empty cartons. Another day, another breakfast served.
There's just one problem: Many of the breakfasts never even get touched.
Breakfast in the Classroom is a project of the Houston Independent School District and its food service contractor, Philadelphia-based Aramark. Figuring that kids learn better on a full stomach, 56 schools in the district now serve breakfast during first period to anyone who wants it. Thanks to the project, HISD now serves 11 million free breakfasts a year -- almost five million more than it did before the program expanded.
But a quick survey of the returned coolers at Davis reveals that a breakfast served is much different from a breakfast eaten. Cooler after cooler returns with untouched taco pockets and unopened milk cartons; in many coolers, the juice is gone, but that's about it.
HISD spokeswoman Adriana Villarreal says that only kids who want breakfast get food, and teachers use rosters to check off the kids who eat. But the worksheets at Davis seem to bear little relation to the evidence. In one classroom, for example, the teacher has checked off 32 of 37 kids -- despite returning a cooler with 33 milk cartons and 18 unopened tacos. In another, the teacher has marked off 28 kids, but only five took tacos.
There's more at stake than accurate record-keeping. The federal government's Free Breakfast Program reimburses HISD up to $1.46 for every eligible kid who eats breakfast. Last year, that added up to $16.7 million in federal funds to the district.
Thanks to the fed's largesse, HISD's food service program ran an $8.9 million surplus last year, according to records. And that, along with the increased participation numbers, ensured Aramark its highest fee yet: $4.75 million for the year.
Not everyone is happy.
"They're serving thousands of breakfasts that no one even looks at, much less eats," says Orell Fitzsimmons, field director for the Service Employees International Union Local 100. "They're bilking the free breakfast program for millions every year."
HISD spokesman Terry Abbott rejects that criticism. This year "we were able to actually cut the price of our meals for the poorest kids in half, while all around the country other school districts were raising prices," he writes. "Fitzsimmons has always opposed Aramark, and he has always been wrong."