COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. - In Collier County Wednesday night, two groups of people are worried about their jobs.

Tomorrow, janitors and media specials with the Collier County School District will know which group will be laid off.

Who loses their jobs tomorrow is up to the school board.

If they vote to out-source the district's custodial services, the janitors will be gone. If they don't, media assistants and one office assistant from each school will be looking for employment elsewhere.

"Its a no win situation," says Endrelunas.

Rebecca Endrelunas is the lead teacher for Collier County School's media specialists, as well as a media specialist at Gulf Coast High School.

She says if the district's schools lose the media assistants, students will end up losing reading and research programs.

"If the media assistant is taken away, the media specialist is going to spend their entire time in clerical duty, rather than doing the job they are supposed to be doing, which is teaching," Endrelunas explains.

But she also knows many custodians and understands their concerns.
"It just makes me crushed to think that, and having spoken with them, knowing that their worried about losing their jobs, losing their benefits, and having to look for a new job in a very bad market," Endrelunas says.

Endrelunas and many other say its not fair for the district to pit the two sides against one another.

"Its important to monitor the integrity of our teaching field and the educational side has to take precedence, but its very difficult because with these people that we work with everyday and you don't want to choose. You don't want to take sides," Endrelunas explains.

While it may seem like its custodians versus media and office assistants on the outside, on the inside it's a different story.

"I think they're very sympathetic toward each other," Endrelunas says.

The Collier County School Board meeting is at 3:00 PM Thursday. You can trust WINK News to be there to bring you the latest developments.