The Facilities and Operations Subcommittee on Oct. 30 discussed a vendor proposal to place clothing, textile, shoe and book collection containers at school properties and voted to send a pilot to the full committee with conditions.

Staff described the vendor’s model: the company already has a contract with the city for other services and offers home pickups; containers placed at schools would be emptied, weighed, and revenues forwarded to individual PTO accounts. Committee members said past container programs in the city became dumping sites, and they stressed the need for quick vendor responsiveness, clear contact information, visible lighting and camera coverage at placement locations.

Members suggested a pilot of a limited number of sites rather than wholesale placement and asked staff to obtain vendor references and documented guarantees that the company will remove illegal or oversized items within 24 hours of notification. Several committee members also proposed centralizing revenues into a district account and distributing proceeds to PTOs to ensure equitable distribution across all schools.

A motion to approve forwarding the proposal to the full committee was made and seconded; the committee asked staff to return with vendor references, sample contracts, expected revenue estimates for PTOs and an operational plan for monitoring and enforcement.