As students and teachers alike leave Aliso Niguel High School for winter break, the janitorial crew continues to work in order to continue to provide maintenance and improvements to the school.
Aliso Niguel High School houses thousands of students on any given day. These students come and go from classes and breaks leaving a trail of trash as they go. The janitorial staff’s job is to maintain the school grounds in order to keep our school pristine.
The janitor’s job far exceeds just cleaning up after students. The janitor’s most important job is maintaining the inner workings of the school, which is why the janitors must remain at Aliso Niguel during winter break.
Over the break, a unique opportunity is presented to the janitors as all students will be off the campus. This allows the crew to do more intrusive jobs that either make too much noise or take up too much room. These jobs usually create a disturbance to the learning environment during the school day.
The jobs span in and out of the classroom. If a teacher wants a specific object or technology serviced in their classroom, they must fill out a work request.
A work request is an official request to the janitorial staff which must be approved by the district before being carried out. These usually include larger jobs. An air conditioning problem is prevalent in many classes across Aliso Niguel High School, due to the high cost and extremely intrusive nature of the fix, a work request must be filed and approved before the servicing is provided.
Another work request is the repainting of classrooms. Aliso Niguel High School is nearly 30 years old, and because of its age, small things such as paint have begun to fail and chip. Due to the fumes, the longer application and drying process, winter break is the perfect time to carry out the much needed maintenance.
Another time the janitors have time to do larger projects is during the weekends.
Janitors must work both weekdays and weekends as well as holidays as their jobs are of the utmost importance to the school. They make sure the school runs smoothly.
The janitors are overseen by Assistant Principal, Lauren Shrader. When speaking of the janitorial staff’s importance, she said, “The campus would not thrive without them.”
The assistant principal does more than just manage the janitors, rather she takes a more proactive role in her supervision. Weekly, herself and the head janitor do school wide checks for improvements. They scan the hallways and classrooms, searching for ways to better the experience of the school for students and faculty alike.
One improvement that the school is looking forward to is the inclusion of more tables and umbrellas. The janitors would have the job of carrying and arranging the new tables.
The janitors have a very important role in Aliso Niguel High School. Unfortunately, a large amount of their time is wasted cleaning up after students during breaks. Their time could be used more efficiently if they did not have to spend so much time doing a task many students could do for themselves.
The Assistant Principal said, “if us as students can pick up our trash after lunch…they [janitors] can do other things to help us.”
The janitorial staff are a crucial part of Aliso Niguel High School and during the winter break of 2023, the janitors will continue to work hard, maintaining our school while students are away.
