Custodians work behind the scenes everyday to keep schools across the country clean, but many people don’t really know what they do in a day. GEHS’s lead custodian, William Bennett, sheds some light on his everyday.
Bennett has many duties that come with his job. Some of those duties are overseeing the entire building, setting up events, and cleaning up.
“I oversee the whole building, set up events, [and] clean up. All the fun stuff,” Bennett said.
Bennett said that currently at GEHS the custodians are “short-handed.”
“We have seven full time, myself, and then two part-timers,” Bennett said.
Custodians arrive at the school early in the morning to get it prepared for the day. Then after school a night crew comes in.
“We get in here at 6:30 [and] unlock the doors, turn the lights on, [and] clean up any messes that didn’t get cleaned up the night before. Then the night crew comes in at 3:00 to clean up the rooms [or] clean up events,” Bennett said.
Bennett has been a part of staff for almost four years.
“I have been here since March 2020,” Bennett said.
Bennet’s favorite part of GEHS is the people that are here.
“Probably the people, and definitely the students,” he said.
Bennett enjoys his job because he gets to help.
“I like helping the kids, helping everybody,” he said.
Bennett enjoys that his job keeps him occupied.
“[My] favorite part of my job [is that] it keeps me busy. It makes the day go by faster,” Bennett said.
The event that Bennett looks forward to every year is graduation because it means the school year can start all over again.
“It’s the biggest event of the year so it’s a lot of work to get it done, but [getting] it out of the way, it’s even more fun,” he said.
Bennett says that his most memorable experience was getting the opportunity to work with George Buckingham, a former custodian at GEHS.
“I would have to say last year, working with George Buckingham. He made the job fun. He is a great guy,” Bennett said.
Bennett wants students to remember to do their part in keeping the school clean.
“If they could do their part and pick up after themselves after lunch because, like I said, we are short-handed, and any little help would be a great help for us,” Bennett said.
