July 31, 2024
“In the summer, we work through summer scrub. That’s the deep cleaning. Everything gets wiped down, the nooks and crannies of the desks, the shelves, the chairs. Inside of the room, everything gets dusted, lightbulbs changed, fixtures repaired. We’ll do floor work using handheld auto scrubbers to get down a couple of layers and make sure the floors get a nice clean for the year. Then, we’ll wax it and burnish it so that it’s really nice and shiny at the start of the school year. Then we put the Tetris puzzle back together, making sure everything goes back to where it’s supposed to and the classrooms are in order.
I’ve been a custodian in the district for almost 10 years. At the time, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do as a career, and then I ended up really liking the job as a custodian. I like the impact I can make. I’m a head custodian, so I’m the person everybody calls, I’m the one who can help. I feel like when I solve a problem, I’m the one who can help.
It’s a really good feeling when I can help solve a problem, when I can come together with teachers and staff at Cherokee to make sure the building is what it needs to be. It’s important that I help teachers meet the needs of the students, and I do that in a ton of different ways.
A lot of my job is reactionary. If someone makes a mess, I help clean it up. If someone has a question or needs a work order, I put it in. My job is to help monitor and keep the building running. I try to make things easier for people in the school during the year.
I like my job because I like having a team I can lead. We’re a small little band, but we make it work. I love working with them because we’ve got a good team. We have different strengths we bring to the table, but we all work well together to reach a goal of a clean, safe building and get the work done.
I really like in the summer putting the school back together and the gratification of making something look really good. I have a lot of pride in my work and my school.”
