All 31 custodians who cleaned schools across Blue Island, Robbins, Alsip and Crestwood have been laid off by District 130, and parents and teachers are now telling the school board that classrooms, bathrooms and buildings have been left unsanitary as a result. The layoffs were tied to a switch in custodial service providers, with the new company scheduled to take over on Sept. 8.
The district voted to lay off all 31 custodians as part of the transition, according to ABC7 Chicago. In the gap between the old staff leaving and the new provider starting, the district put temporary arrangements in place to keep buildings running, the station reported. Parents and union representatives said during that stretch that teachers and students ended up helping with cleaning duties.
District officials pushed back on that characterization. They said teachers were not required to take on custodial duties and that students were not being used to replace custodial staff, according to the same ABC7 report. Families and educators raised those concerns directly with the District 130 school board this week, telling board members about unsanitary conditions in classrooms, bathrooms and buildings, as FOX 32 Chicago reported.
Union Files Complaints Over the Layoffs
SEIU Local 73 has filed complaints with the state education board, alleging the layoffs violated Illinois labor laws, per the ABC7 account. The complaints add a legal dimension to a dispute that has otherwise centered on cleanliness and staffing during the transition period.
The district's move mirrors a broader pattern playing out across the region's school systems. Chicago Public Schools announced in August 2025 that it would cut 480 custodian jobs and end all of its private custodial contracts, shifting to an in-house cleaning model, according to Chalkbeat Chicago. That overhaul was expected to save the district about $40 million, with CPS overseeing 2,100 full-time custodians and ending seven private contracts by the end of September 2025.
A History of Cleanliness Complaints Tied to Privatization
CPS framed its shift as necessary to consolidate custodial services amid budget challenges and to improve efficiency and long-term sustainability, Chalkbeat reported. Even so, the announcement drew concerns about school cleanliness just two weeks before the 2025-26 school year began.
Custodial privatization has generated similar complaints in Chicago before. A survey of roughly 230 Chicago principals found that most reported reduced custodial staffing and worsened building cleanliness after an earlier round of privatization, according to the Chicago Reporter. One South Side principal told the outlet her school's daytime custodial staff dropped from three workers to just one after the change.
That earlier privatization effort saw the Chicago Board of Education approve two three-year custodial contracts, one worth $260 million to Aramark and another worth $80 million to Sodexmagic, the Chicago Reporter's reporting shows. Aramark was assigned to manage custodial services at all but 33 schools, while Sodexmagic handled the remainder. One principal described parents, teachers and students volunteering to clear an enormous amount of trash and sweep and mop a school themselves before it could open. An Aramark official later acknowledged the company had not delivered on its promise of making conditions easier for principals.
For District 130 families, those precedents underscore the stakes as the new custodial provider settles into its role at schools serving Blue Island, Robbins, Alsip and Crestwood. The union's state complaints and the school board's public hearing suggest the dispute over staffing and cleanliness is not yet resolved.
