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Keeping Up with The Custodians
Description
What is it like to keep schools with more than 56,000 students operating smoothly every single day? In this episode of the Supercast, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey finds out what it is like to be a school custodian by taking on some of the enormous cleaning and operating tasks himself. We also talk to student sweepers about their duties as part of the custodial team and learn how students can apply for the part-time jobs.
Audio Transcription
Superintendent:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Today we find out what it's like to keep up with the custodians. We're talking about school custodians who take care of buildings that are housing more than 56,000 students. Today, I dive in and do some of the work myself with the help of Kevin Sprague, who is the head custodian at our brand new Mountain Ridge High School in Herriman. Then we follow some sweepers around and find out how they land the jobs that in many cases seem to be a perfect fit for students. Let's start with a 7:00 AM visit to Mountain Ridge High School and Custodian Kevin Sprague. How are you Kevin?
Kevin:
I'm good. How are you, Dr. Godfrey?
Superintendent:
I'm doing all right. Uh, we're here at seven and I suspect Kevin has already been here for a while this morning.
Kevin:
Yes, I have. So I've been here actually, most of the weekend. I was here yesterday for about 10 hours, working with our contractors, finishing up our auditorium and then come in early this morning to touch up, clean up for Sadie's Dance. Do some little odds and ends. So yes, early.
Superintendent:
I have a theory that anyone who works in a high school could stand in the commons at any time, day or night, and someone would walk up and have a question or have a need. Do you feel like that's true?
Kevin:
Yes. And I'm glad that the District pays for our cell phones for all of our text, communication, emails, because it comes in all the time.
Superintendent:
I have no doubt. This is the second school you've opened. Right? You opened the middle school as well.
Kevin:
Yes. I opened up Copper Mountain Middle School six years ago and then thought I'd put in for the high school and here I am.
Superintendent:
Kevin, you and I have known each other for a long time. And your family has been very involved in Jordan School District. Tell us a little bit about that.
Kevin:
Yeah, my dad retired from the Jordan School District as a head custodian. I have a younger brother that's a head custodian over at Sunset Ridge Middle. His wife is a Nutrition Service Manager over at West Jordan Middle and then myself. I've been in the District for 28 years. Made a career out of it, probably will still continue to work here. And it's been a great place.
Superintendent:
We're very glad to have so many Sprague's in Jordan School District, doing the hard work that's required to keep everything up and running and I'm going to try some of that hard work today. Don't let me break anything.
(02:37):
We'll see how you go. We're going to give you a little demonstration on our riding floor scrubbers, and we'll see how you do.
Superintendent:
Now, the riding floor scrubber, it looks kind of like a Zamboni. It's like a Zamboni-lawnmower combination.
Kevin:
These machines are great when it comes to cleaning the buildings, and such large buildings to be able to clean every day and help keep the floors up. Okay, there we go.
Superintendent:
So here's the key switch. I still turn it on. Wait, do I need to put the brake on? I don't even need to do anything yet over here.
Kevin:
Alright, so we've got the water already set, the pad pressure already set. Now we're going to start the speed really slow. You can go kind of faster, but we're going to get