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Mayor Helen Thomas

I am sending this letter in hopes of getting a response as to the reason the William Penn School District is allowed to operate with such illegal and dangerous situations that the District itself is aware of, but refuses to do anything about. I have written to Aramark, but have received no response as of this letter. They have ignored it, hoping just as they have in the past seven years that Joe Otto can hide it, but when it comes to the safety of the children, there is no hiding. I will continue to write letters and seek answers until I get them. I lost my job with Aramark because I cared, but it seems no one else does.

I was the maintenance manager of the school district (Aramark employee), until I was let go because I did not agree with the dangerous situations that the school district as well as Aramark were ignoring. They sent me to a school 101 miles away, but they couldn’t stop me from caring.

I was under the impression that the children that attend these schools are the first priority, but I suppose the school district has other more important things to do. I want every parent, association and whomever else that may care be made aware of the treacherous and unethical dangers and happenings at the William Penn School District.

Here are some of the issues that I feel need to be taken care of, but by far not all of them

How is it possible that when Aramark, (who controls the maintenance of the entire district), receives a phone call from the alarm company, we as managers are instructed to not call an employee to check out the situation, but to place the system on test for the rest of the night until our shift begins in the morning? This is done because workers would get 3 hours of overtime automatically if they were called. So to avoid these overtime charges, Aramark places the system on test. Records can be checked to match Alarm Company calls to actual maintenance staff checking out the problem. I feel this is a very dangerous situation to our
children.

Explain to me how a board member, Diane Leahan, is still serving on the board when her own family member stole a trailer from the District, which is all on tape and in a police report with the police department. This was hushed by the school district because of up coming elections and embarrassment.

The workers of William Penn are forced to work out of a condemned building, (the old Abel Building) at quarry street which has been vacant and condemned after Hurricane Floyd destroyed it several years ago. Mold can clearly be seen on the walls, and the District pays a phenomenal $6000 a month in rent as well as utility bills for the place.

Many of the schools have chained, unsafe, or non-working fire doors. If a student were killed in a blaze, this would be when the district explored this? The district is well aware of this situation, but again, nothing gets done.

Many of the employees would not pass the FBI clearance that was put into effect, yet the District continues to hire people that have criminal backgrounds, and/or unknown backgrounds. Only recently have they started checking this a little more thoroughly.

Many of the doorways, stage areas, and fire exits are blocked with items that should not be there in case a fire breaks out.

Security does not exist in many of the buildings, and exterior doors are often left open for anyone to walk in and do whatever to the children.

Playground equipment is not safe, not up to code. They have unqualified people checking the equipment.

The new playground equipment at Bell Avenue school, which costs $13,000, is being installed by non-qualified people, because Joe Otto and the District does not want to spend $5,000 for the company to install it properly. They are having school district employees install this equipment, which they have never done before.

Every single building has several leaks in its roof, which causes mold and mildew everywhere. The solution by the school district and Aramark is to simply change ceiling tiles and cover the leaks and mold.

Asbestos floor tiles are present in many buildings, especially in Bell Avenue School where the entire 2nd floor was replaced last year, but the school district did not want to pay to have the 1st floor done. The boiler room is filled with asbestos pipes.

Fire codes, dangerous situations and many other harmful events are simply brushed under the table because CEO Joe Otto simply makes a phone call to the local council and has it forgotten.

Last year, the Chester/Penn Wood High School Basketball game at the High School was oversold by a few hundred tickets, causing a riot and police presence at 10 O’clock at night because the people that paid were not let into the building even though they had tickets. Whatever did happen to the extra money?

Aramark is paid around $310,000 a year for their services of the maintenance and grounds department, but now after my departure, there are only 2 managers at this location. Taxpayers may question why they are paying an outside group $310,000 for 2 managers that cannot do anything hands on. Is this cheaper than hiring a person that works for the school at around $35,000? This does not include what they pay Aramark for food services. Aramark promised a maintenance program, and a more efficient department seven years ago, but neither has been installed. In fact, the school district has not even renewed Aramark’s contract as of yet.

The superintendent has made it publicly known that he wants out, by applying for three other positions in the past seven months.

The Bell Ave school had 2-3 fire alarms last year due to ballast catching on fire. The Fire Chief said to have all wiring redone before opening, but this was not done. Many times, a ballast smokes or sparks or catches on fire in the classrooms, causing an evacuation, but what happens when a child gets trapped and cannot get out? Will the school finally be shut down until its safe?

More overtime is paid to employees of this school district than any other school district in Pennsylvania.

Many of the door closers that are supposed to automatically close and lock the door behind someone do not work. The District says it spent enough on lock repairs, but this is not acceptable.

With a grounds crew and equipment, the maintenance department still hires outside contractors to cut many of the schools, which in my opinion is a total waste of school funds.

The boiler rooms in most of these schools are accidents waiting to happen. If your child were injured from these harmful and dangerous incidents, maybe then the school district would have them checked?

In my year of service as Maintenance Manager, I was asked to hush on the following when I asked about them:

An Isis program that Aramark promised years ago that never happened because of its costs.
Freezers going down and Managers being told to put the system on test until the next work day. This food was then served to the kids, with the explanation that the freezer or fridge maintained its temperature.
Unrecorded time off by Managers
One employee that mixed Bleach with another cleaning chemical and almost died.
Hundreds of master keys that open all schools are un-accounted for.
Many of the schools fire alarms are not tied in with the fire department.
No schools have knock boxes for emergency keys for firemen.
Classroom doors in most schools do not lock down properly.
Not one of the schools has proper MSDS sheets available, and most don’t even know what they are.
Blue prints are not updated
Not all schools do monthly fire escape test.
Escape gates through windows are locked or not working.

I feel that these and many other situations need to be taken care of and/or looked at for safer and better conditions at the William Penn School District.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions that I may be assistance with.

I am also enclosing my initial letter to Aramark, which they have chosen to ignore.

ARAMARK Headquarters Office
1101 Market St
Philadelphia, PA 19107
1-800-ARAMARK

CC: Aramark HQ
InvestorRelations@aramark.com.
Oliver Delgado
www.aramarkfacilities.com.
albert-debbie@aramark.com
grow-kristine@aramark.com
scottbrown-leanne@aramark.com
Freireich-david@aramark.com
Joseph Neubauer

Dear Aramark 6/7/2007

This letter is being sent so that you may be conscious of what your company may or may not be aware of, but to also let you know that the public, as well as current accounts of Aramark, will also be informed of the repulsive practices of your company.

I have worked for your company for one year now, and was the Maintenance Manager of William Penn School District. For one year, I can supply many, many letters from principles, and other employees of the school of my work habits an knowledge. They were excellent.

On Friday, I was told by regional manager Oliver Delgado, who I have never met in person, that I was being transferred for a few weeks to another account, that I understand all the managers and staff walked off on. This account was 2 hours and 20 minutes from me, one way! It was in York, PA.

I was also being sent there for custodial reasons, which I have nothing to do with. Our custodial manager Angel was there for the previous 3 week, and I was informed that he didn’t want to go anymore and informed Oliver of this. He and Oliver are pals from another account to my understanding.

So here I am, the Maintenance Manager of a school 3 miles from me, being punished and told I have to go manage a school in York PA, for custodial, until they hire someone. Although the school was one hundred and twenty miles one way, I had to go because Angel no longer wanted to.

Two days I made the trip, costing me $25 a day in gas, and $5 a day in tolls, (not including the rent a car Aramark is paying for also). I have the receipts for those.

Today, your sniveling manager Oliver walks in, after I told him that I could no longer make this trip, and proclaims that I left early. Yes I did leave early. In one day of work at this school, three teachers told me I had done more work than the previous manager for three weeks. Yeah, that’s really stealing isn’t it? Oh did I mention that Aramark rented me a car with bad tags and that I had to take care of this also??

So, instead of faking an injury (which my back hurt because I moved 10 5 foot tables), I worked from 5 in the morning, and left when the lady came in.

Well, as of today, I no longer work for Aramark after a year of dedication and excellent service. But that is here nor there.

Within 24 hours of this letter being sent, I want answers to questions. If I do not receive the answers, I will begin asking for answers from the school districts, and/or other
Aramark accounts, and let them know how Aramark is truly operated. I will send letters to every news portal, every newspaper, and every investor. These people have a right to know, and that’s not illegal.

I will send letters to Joe Otto, who may not care, but the school board will. They may care how Aramark is running their maintenance Department. They may care that employees are housed in a condemned building. They may care that Supervisors are skimming off the top. They may care that supplies are disappearing, or that people are being treated like dogs by Aramark. I’m sure I can get 20-50 people to state that.

It’s amazing how a custodian can claim “harassment” on three Aramark managers, and get away with it. When it happened to me, I begged my supervisor to make sure I was protected, and that I wanted to file a claim against this employee, who later recanted and said I didn’t harass her. Aramark never offered the help, even though they say they
would.

Actually, I thought it was also illegal for a supervisor to give information out about one of their workers to another job seeker. In fact, all they can do is refer them to Human Resources or answer one question, “Would you rehire the person.” Hmm, well maybe my supervisor needs to know this. I’m sure the name Frank Russell comes to mind. But that’s nothing Aramark would care about either, even though I’m in the process of a complaint against both for discussing me without my permission or knowledge. I’m sure that Aramark account will be lost because of this as well.

Don’t worry, I can prove everything stated, making it very, very legal.

How can Oliver say to me when I asked if he can make sure I would get paid for my vacation… “We’ll have to see.” It’s not his choice. As a District Manager, I don’t think he should be saying that to employees. I am owed the time and I want it paid.

I have missed three days in the past year, twice for a death in my family. How are they taken out of my personal time?? We are supposed to get funeral leave are we not?

How can Oliver make me go to another account 101 miles away, and then get mad at me because I couldn’t do it?

This will not end until I get answers.