Hardworking Custodial Staff Prepares For The New Year

By Susan Coney

During the summer months, while the rest of the world seems to be on vacation, the school custodians remain hard at work. Never experiencing a lull, the custodial staff find that the summer months provide them with the opportunity to work on classrooms that are normally filled with chattering students and jam packed with desks and learning paraphernalia.

Summertime for the average custodian means working in high gear, on a tight time frame to accomplish the much needed maintenance and cleaning duties too arduous to be done during the regular school year. Each summer classrooms are emptied. The furniture, desks, and shelves are cleaned. Everything is heaved out to the hallway so that the floors may be cleaned and waxed. The boards and ledges are washed as well as the windows and sills. Not to be missed are the offices, libraries, computer rooms, gyms, cafeterias, hallways, bathrooms, and locker rooms. The custodians do quite a bit more than most people think to get the schools back in good shape for fall.

Newtown Middle School Principal Diane Sherlock could not speak more highly of the custodial staff working at her school. She beamed when she spoke about head custodian Kevin Anzellotti and night custodian Don Roos. “They are wonderful. I just can’t say enough good things about them, they really take care of us,” Ms Sherlock said.

Don Ramsey, the technical education teacher at Newtown Middle School, works closely with the custodial staff for he is forever engaging his students in hands-on, often messy, activities. “Those guys are so accommodating you almost feel guilty asking for anything. Kevin especially is so upbeat and very good with kids, which is an extremely strong point. They all go out of their way to interact in a positive way with the kids. It is like a breath of fresh air to have these guys,” Mr Ramsey said.

Mr Anzellotti has worked at the middle school for one year; he recently came over from Sandy Hook Elementary to fill the position as head custodian. He has worked in the Newtown school system for three years now. “I like the kids. I went to Newtown Middle School when I was a kid. It’s a good building. It just needs to be constantly maintained because of its age,” said Mr Anzellotti. “I’m just doing my job. It’s not just me, it’s my guys and my night supervisor Don Roos; he carries me. We’re a good team!” he said modestly. “We make sure it happens; you have to hustle and bustle stripping the floors and maintaining the building. Also Dominick [Posca, the buildings and grounds supervisor] is sensational. He’s hands on and when you need anything he’s there for you,” Mr Anzellotti said.

Newtown High School head custodian Jimmy Young concurred that summer time is prime work time for custodial staffs across the school system. “Every year we drain, clean, scrape, and repaint the high school pool. It’s a big job,” said Mr Young. In addition, all the floors throughout all of the schools are cleaned and buffed. Many classrooms are painted, all of which falls under the responsibility of the custodians.

In addition to all the scraping, painting, polishing, and cleaning, each school has certain updates and makeovers unique to that particular building. For instance at the high school the custodians are in the process of giving the Power Tech classroom an extensive makeover and assisting in the relocation of the attendance office. Mr Young stated emphatically, “We will be busy right to the end, but we will be ready when the kids come back.”