It takes many people to run a school: teachers, administrators, secretaries, and coaches…but one of the most important jobs is often overlooked: the job of a custodian.
Custodians do a majority of their work behind the scenes, and at PV, this is no different. In total, the school has ten custodial staff; there are two that work during the day and eight that work at night to do the major cleaning.
If one asked a teacher what their average day looked like, the majority could give you a rough outline of how each class goes. That’s not the case for Dan Simmons and Corey Lopez, the two day custodians.
Each day holds new tasks and responsibilities that differ from the day before. The head custodian Simmons commented, During the day there are certain things you must do at certain times, like check boilers, check the pool, and honor HVAC requests. During the day it’s mostly putting out what I like to call ‘fires’ or responding to emergencies — Dan Simmons
“During the day there are certain things you must do at certain times, like check boilers, check the pool, and honor HVAC requests. During the day it’s mostly putting out what I like to call ‘fires’ or responding to emergencies.”
The fires that Simmons refers to can be anything from fixing pipe leaks to cleaning up vomit to assisting contractors. Teachers who need things done send in work orders to Simmons. There are also daily tasks that are entered on the “HVAC” calendar.
From there, Simmons will have his set plan for the day. Mentioning the calendar Simmons said, “Basically it requests space, not only what you need but how you want it set up. This involves prom to sporting events.”
For assemblies, Simmons and Lopez will pull out the bleachers and ensure that everything the school needs for a particular event is ready. They will haul risers for choir concerts, chairs for band concerts, and make everything at the school committed to excellence.
Typically, students think that custodians only clean and wax floors, but at Pleasant Valley, custodians help administration with so much more. They will fix electrical, plumbing, and ventilation issues that the school may be having. Even daily things like changing belts, filters, and maintaining boilers are part of their everyday job.
Although cleaning and handyman jobs may seem easy, there is a dangerous part to what Simmons and Lopez do. Many of the dangers come from the pool; it requires many kinds of chemical, and if he mixes the chemicals wrong, he can make harmful gases which could be dangerous to the entire school. They will also hang sports banners twenty plus feet in the air, operate heavy machinery, and work with electric equipment.
When the weather is cold and snowy, students and teachers will often come to school expecting the snow to be shoveled and the sidewalks salted. However, the entire maintenance and custodial crew will come and try to get all the parking lots and sidewalks clear before anyone has to use them. With the five parking lots and many sidewalks that wrap around the school, shoveling is no small task.
With the Pleasant Valley staff and student body nearing more than 1400 students, it is amazing that ten people can clean, maintain, and manage such a large and growing school. The janitors do more than they get credit for and should be thanked at every opportunity. Next time you go into the clean bathroom and the lights turn on in your classrooms, just give a small thought to the custodians and the work that they do to make everything run smoothly.
Brandon Benson • Jan 4, 2022 at 12:56 pm
I really like how he wrote this article because it puts yourself in there shoes and really shows you that being a janitor isn’t all that easy. Like Dan said, there are certain thing that a janitor must do at a certain time. I like how he said that its almost like putting out the fires. From the outside looking in it looks easy but in the shoes of a janitor it definitely is not easy.