Custodians Work through COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, while everyone is staying away from any potential COVID-19 spots, one group in particular comes as close as they can to it, the custodians.

“Pandemic or no pandemic… we are in charge of building and maintenance,” custodian Joe Dobratz said. “We’re here to aid and assist and help to prevent infectious diseases.”

Everyday, seven days a week, HUHS’s 18 staffed custodians come into work ready to face, fight and conquer the day. With the pandemic increasing the social distancing and health precautions that all students and staff follow, it is still the job of a custodian to clean the school.

“We actually have extra people cleaning touch points throughout the school during the day,” Dobratz said.

Dobratz is the part of the second shift on HUHS’s custodian team, along with 17 other members. Due to the pandemic and it’s constant health risk, both the number of team members and number of shifts have increased. With the sheer size of the school and number of students, the custodians extensively clean every day to keep HUHS safe, clean and healthy.

“Doors, the light switches, if any kind of pencil sharpeners, that kind of stuff,” custodian Morgan Hegy said. She, like Dobratz, is part of the after school shift, responsible for classroom cleaning and hallway maintenance. From the classroom to table to teacher offices, custodians restore the school to it’s safe and healthy state every night and while students and teachers are able to clean their own desks and such, it is the custodians who really clean up.

HUHS’s custodians work hard to keep the school sanitized and clean. So much so that the head of Building and Grounds, Frank Lord, trusts the school’s cleaning protocoles more than other public places.

“Knowing the cleanliness of the building and how often things are being disinfected/sanitized, I feel more comfortable at work than I do in other public places,” Lord said.

Lord isn’t the only one either. From an outside perspective, students too trust and recognize the work HUHS’s sutodians do.

Senior Hayley Shultz said, “While their work goes unnoticed many times, without their hard work and services I do not think that this school would not be able to teach face to face.”

“Due to them, I know that the spread [of COVID-19] throughout our school is much lower than it would be without proper cleaning,” junior Hanna Northway says. She too has seen an increased number of custodians working around the student during the school day and for that, her appreciation for them has grown. “I trust them 100% and because of their dedication to preventing the further spread, I feel much safer coming to school.”