With COVID vaccines, constant Zooming, travel restrictions, and the upselling of hand sanitizer, it’s easy to get lost in the worries of a pandemic. Behind the scenes, a crew of dedicated people enable students to return back to school, but are left without the praise they deserve: school custodians.
After school and on half-day Wednesdays, the custodians sweep through the school with antibacterial cleansers to mitigate the spread of COVID. They toss away the litter left around the school and receive nary a thank you from the students. We acknowledge their dedication to keeping the students safe and healthy, and shout them out in an attempt to show our appreciation for their hard work.
The building manager organizing the majority of the work behind the scenes is David Reyes. Since the week of Jan 20th, 2020 Reyes was appointed new building manager of New Canaan High School. Before becoming building manager, Reyes was a custodian for seven years, the last four of which he worked at New Canaan High School.
No question, custodians have risen to the challenge of COVID-19
This year has definitely hit the custodian team with something they have never experienced. In an interview with Reyes, he discussed some new protocols for the year, “Every night, every day, every time this building is open, all touch surfaces need to be disinfected,” he said.
We all know how unprecedented these times are by now, however, the custodians were faced with the task of ensuring the health and safety of students. The pressure of making sure all students remained COVID-19 negative and were safe was now put on the shoulders of the custodian team. Last year the team was faced with many challenges, but they seem to have worked around it. “When Corona first started, we were still trying to figure it out, just like the rest of the world was. So we went through our growing pains, but the district put together a plan that, to this day, has been successful” Reyes said.
Thankfully Reyes mentioned that the students are doing a pretty good job in following the rules and regulations. “As of right now, I think the students are doing a great job at keeping safe social distancing and cleaning up after themselves” Reyes said. “What I have learned from this time is that a lot of basic principles are being practiced, like washing your hands.”
After recognizing how much work the custodians have done to help us all remain safe and healthy, we think the least we can do is applaud their work. So along with the many celebrations of this issue, we would like to recognize all of the custodians and staff members who have worked incredibly hard to ensure that we can have the most normal and safe high school experience as possible.
