North Harford high school has not had a majority of students in the building during the 2020-2021 school year due to Covid-19. However, if you drive by the school you will still see cars in the parking lot and maybe even see a custodian mowing the sports fields. 

     Without kids in the school who is keeping the physical school in shape? Who’s making sure the school is ready for whenever students and teachers can return? The answer is the custodians and janitors.

     According to Career Trend duties required of a custodian include replenishing stock in bathrooms, cleaning restrooms, gathering and emptying trash, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, monitoring building safety and security, and dusting. Overall, keeping the school as clean and tidy as possible.

     Many custodians work evening hours to clean while buildings are empty, however, custodians working in schools work during the day. Most full-time custodians work 40 hours per week and part-time cleaners  often work evenings and weekends.

     Wima Evans is a custodian at North Harford high school and has been working there for 42 years. She described her day to day job consisting of “sweeping/mopping halls, dusting windows, cleaning bathrooms. We also help with cafeteria duty during lunches and afterward clean the cafeteria.”

     Although her everyday routine at the school sounds relatively the same she continued to say “Every day is different.”

     However, Evans’ job is even more different now with COVID-19 “Besides the normal cleaning of the entire building, this summer we were measuring each room and trying to place desks and chairs in them so they were socially distanced.  Some rooms were very challenging as we wanted to get as many desks in as possible.”

     Journalism and English teacher Jennifer Chandler recalled Evans coming into her room to help redesign her room to be “Covid friendly”, she explained, “my room was particularly difficult to move desks around because my desk is in the back of the room, but the custodians came in every day until my room was up to par.”

     Moving desks in the classroom aren’t the only things that had to happen, but the custodians were also responsible for creating a socially distanced environment in the cafeteria. They cleaned and sanitized every single locker in the building and hung up signs all around the school reminding students to wear masks and sanitize often.

     Classrooms and restrooms have to be cleaned even more often this year and with “the more people in the building will require more sanitation.

     Evans’s life in the building without the students and staff there is very different considering “the staff is all like one big family, we try to stay in touch even after some members of staff have retired.”

     When asked about the relationship she shares with the staff, Evans told of a time she was in need and the staff was more than willing to lend a helping hand. “Years ago, someone stole the oil out of my heating tank at home, I had just filled it. The oil company could not help me out so I was out of money and oil. The entire staff got together and took up a collection. A retired teacher and her husband even had 100 gallons delivered to help me out. I was so grateful for that day for so many great friends.”