Early dawn at 5-6 AM, our day shift custodian, Jari Amesmaki, opens the building and prepares it for students. As bustling students enter the building, Amesmaki maintains heating, cooling, lighting, and cleanliness. He immediately cleans up any mess he spots. For the remainder of the afternoon, he focuses on making sure everything stays clean, there are no spills, and if there are, he cleans them.
Custodians are the epitome of hard work and consistent hours, so the question is: What happens behind the scenes when we aren’t paying attention?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, their work environment is indoors, and they spend most of the day walking, standing, or cleaning the building they are in. Besides indoor custodians, some outdoor custodians sweep sidewalks, shovel snow, and mow lawns. They don’t work in buildings.
Later in the evening, custodians Cindy Frigon, Austin Stewart, Brian Brackett, and Daniel Johnson all work after the hours of school hours. Frigon works in all of the carpeted areas in the building, such as the library, guidance, and the offices. The other “3 push the carts,” as head Custodian David Wiita states.
Wiita runs the whole of the custodian work in the building. It is split into five sections: up front, which is the front lobby, and basically, where you see tile everywhere. Out back, which is the gym area as well as the locker rooms. Four corners, which are all of the classrooms in that area, and those two huge bathrooms. The smallest section is downstairs, which includes the auditorium and the kitchen off the lunchroom. Finally, the fifth section is the offices and all carpeted areas. “It’s a busy place, but everybody knows what they are doing,” Wiita states.
It may seem like a lot, but these hard-working and fast-paced staff get through it all in a 24-hour workday. It, of course, is busy with hundreds – 630 to be more specific – of students bustling through the halls trying to get to class on time, spilling drinks and making messes. The custodial staff knows what they are doing, so they work as quickly as they can!
Custodians work year-round, including the summer. Wiita explains that it is easier to work in the summer as their isnt almost 500 people walking in there every single weekday. Although Wiita states, “By the summer, honestly, it does get a little bit boring. Like, you guys are fun to talk to.”
In the summer, they empty each room completely and redo the floors, and get a lot of stuff done that they wouldn’t in a time when school is present.
“By the end of the summer, we’re ready for the school year to start again, to get back in that normal routine,” Wiita explains.
After school hours, the evening custodial staff ensures the public areas, classrooms, and bathrooms are clean and well-maintained. Technically, based on the Oxford English Dictionary, a custodian is a person or institution responsible for guarding, maintaining, or protecting something valuable, acting as a caretaker or trustee.
Here at Oakmont Regional High School, they protect the community and us, in addition to the building. Here, we are very lucky to have very helpful, friendly, quick, and hardworking custodians.
Our head custodian, who runs the operation when we aren’t paying attention, is David Wiita. He is very well-known around the community of Oakmont and is the custodian we see most often. He has been a part of Oakmont for a little under two years. Before he contributed to Oakmont, he worked in construction right out of high school for 13-14 years.
Later, he got sick of the inconsistency and wanted something closer and more concise/consistent. Wiita states, “So, I was a manager at my last job for five years, and we grew so fast that I kind of got sick of it. My wife already worked in the district when this job came up. So, when I had the opportunity to work for the states and be somewhere where I’m local.”
Wiita explains in our interview that night and day shifts with overtime and special events are very time-ridden and stressful. Events like graduation, eighth-grade commencement, and sporting events. Currently, much time is being spent on re-coding and preparing lockers for next year’s phone ban. Overtime is especially during the two seasons of winter and spring. The overtime would be 40 hours. Wiita explains that the custodial staff works for the state, hence working on holidays and Sundays is optional, of course.
If they need extra pay, they have the option, and if they do, they also get double time. As Wiita is the head custodian, he offers overtime to the rest of the staff. If they all disagree, he takes it over. Wiita states in the interview as such, “It’s a busy, busy time. Plus, no removal, which is overtime as well. So, it’s a lot, but it’s a good opportunity to earn some extra cash, especially in these trying times”.
While students may focus on homework, sports, and grades, not on the staff around them. While the custodians here at Oakmont make it available to students to have a safe, clean, and supportive environment around them.
