It's not just the teacher's union. All of the school workers are unionized.
Our school parents wanted to paint our janitor's office last year as a gift for him, but there were union rules against that.
Our parents wanted to volunteer in the library when the district cut the librarians, but the union rules wouldn't allow that.
It's a joke.
Not only can you not paint the janitor's closet, or anything else, the schools under new California law can't contract any maintenance if they have anyone on the maintenance staff that can do the work, even if it cost more to do the work internally and even if they're not qualified or trained. The union jobs must be protected, costs and public be damned.
There is no question the custodial work cold be done for less, and much better with contract custodians. Same goes for most maintenance.
But would the union workers do when they were turned out on the street and actually had to work for a living.