Chicago Public Schools officials are proposing dumping the Philadelphia-based janitorial behemoth Aramark after years of complaints of filthy schools, a lack of cleaning supplies and poor management of janitors.

Officials next week will ask the Board of Education to approve a series of proposals that would fire Aramark, which currently manages all of CPS’s custodians, and regain in-house management of janitors to give CPS more direct control over school cleaning. CPS would also hire other smaller companies to provide some custodial services that Aramark was operating.

The decision represents the most significant change to CPS facilities management since services were privatized a decade ago and is being celebrated by the union that represents school custodians, who have long opposed the privatization of cleaning services.

“I think we’ve heard the voices of our school staff. I think we’ve heard the voices of students,” CPS Chief Operating Officer Charles Mayfield said. “At the end of the day, the student is what’s most important. That environment has got to be safe and clean for success and academic learning.

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“There’s no guarantee if this will be 100% right,” Mayfield said. “But I can tell you it’s a process of continuous improvement.”

To be able to oversee all CPS custodians, the district plans to hire around 70 custodial managers. Mayfield said principals also will have greater voice in what custodians do. Principals have long complained about not being able to direct custodians in their buildings and even at times have taken it upon themselves to clean dirty spaces.

CPS is looking to ink a three-year deal with seven new vendors — six of them Illinois-based and one from Milwaukee — to do custodial work, a school board meeting agenda posted Monday shows. Dayside janitors will work for CPS, as they do now under Aramark, and those who work overnight will still be privately employed through those companies — but all will report to a CPS manager. The contract would start in March and average $110 million a year over the next three years.

It would overlap for a few months with Aramark’s multi-million dollar deal that expires June 30 to ensure there’s no gap in service when the new companies take over this summer, Mayfield said.

“We want to make sure the transition is as smooth as possible,” he said.

In Aramark’s absence, CPS is also expanding a deal with the Ohio-based supplier Cintas for cleaning products. CPS is proposing spending up to an additional $6.2 million on supplies this school year, then a total of $12.5 million for all schools next year.

Altogether, that brings CPS’s total to $119.5 million next year for the new custodial contract and Cintas supplies — a similar cost to the Aramark deal before accounting for the salaries and benefits of the new custodial managers.

Mayfield said he can’t yet compare the new costs to existing ones because estimates may change.

Meanwhile CPS is asking the Board to approve up to an additional $22 million for Aramark’s contract, raising the deal’s value up to $391 million over the past three years, including up to $148 million this year. Mayfield said the increase represents significant overtime costs due to an inability to fill positions.

There are 182 vacancies today, while 1,234 custodians work for CPS and 1,335 are privately employed.

By the end of June, CPS will have paid Aramark around $900 million since 2014.

Mayfield said the concerns about Aramark’s performance over the years led officials to seek an alternative, and this new system represents “an opportunity to see where we can make some improvements.”

Aramark spokesman Chris Collom said the company is “disappointed that we were not selected to continue with facility services for CPS.

“We are proud of the efforts of our dedicated employees and are committed to ensuring a smooth transition to the school district’s new provider,” Collom said.

SEIU Local 73, the union that represents CPS custodians, lauded the move. Custodians have often complained at Board of Education meetings that they don’t have the proper supplies, are overworked and sometimes aren’t paid on time.

“We are confident that our members’ egregious mistreatment and struggles under privatized management are over,” SEIU 73 said in a statement.

The union, which is in active contract negotiations with CPS, pledged to work closely with school district leaders as they make the transition. But SEIU 73 leaders have accused the district of dragging its feet in bargaining over better pay and other proposals that the union says will help with retention and recruitment.

CPS privatized custodial services in 2014 in a move many viewed as a cost saver — but which turned out to come at the expense of school cleanliness. Dozens of schools managed by Aramark have reported filthy, pest-filled conditions over the years, even as CPS renewed the company’s contracts.

The school system went further in 2017, giving Aramark and another company, SodexoMAGIC, complete control of CPS’ building upkeep, from janitorial work to landscaping, snow removal and pest control services.

There have been various attempts to correct the cleaning system in the years since. CPS announced its intent to dump the two companies in 2020, only to re-up them a year later with a promise of greater accountability.

By that fall, complaints surged and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who had been hired five weeks prior, fired the district’s facilities chief in one of his first decisions leading the district.

Asked if CPS now has the infrastructure to manage cleaning services when previous officials seemed to think it’d be too large of an undertaking, Mayfield said time will tell.

“We’re looking forward to the challenge,” Mayfield said. “At the same time, I think this is a good thing for the district and for the city.”

Nader Issa covers education for the Chicago Sun-Times. Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on X @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter.