Imagine waking up everyday at a time when most people are still deep asleep hours before any alarms will go off.  So early, that waking up at the crack of dawn would be considered sleeping in.

This feat is done everyday before schools start by the workers on the early shift of the custodian staff.  Requiring them Monday through Friday to get to Staples by 5 a.m. to prepare for the school day.  Meaning being responsible for opening up the building by unlocking doors, checking on delivery packages, setting up the cafeteria and setting up any event during the day that will be going on.

There are two shifts on the custodian staff, the first being mentioned before goes from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., the next one will start around 3 or 4 p.m and go until 12 a.m.

The job of the second shift is cleaning up the cafeteria and the building, setting up for activities such as sports as well cleaning up before and after for the night school at Staples.  Then locking down the school and making sure it is all closed and locked for the night.

Custodians have to do a multitude of jobs during the day,  “They think most of the time we just clean, but we do small repairs of the building, also we are like the security guards of the school, we lookout for anything that’s going to harm you guys,” said Horace Lewis, head custodian at Staples.

Custodians are also trained about how to clean efficiently and safely.  They have to know how to do things like take recycling training, learning what is recyclable and not.

Around 5 a.m., Lewis arrives at the school.  As head custodian, he organizes the eighteen-man staff to keep Staples a clean and safe place to be in.  Requiring him to often leave work at as late as 8 p.m.

The custodian staff works almost all hours of the day making the school clean and safe.  The staff of eighteen must take care of a school being used by more then 2,000 people everyday.  Some of the harder things that the job requires are things that students and teachers can help with, “When somebody writes up the bathroom walls and destroys the property, it makes it tougher for us, also trying to keep the cafeteria clean, it would help if the kids would help out too,” Lewis said.

Regardless of the everyday rigors of being a custodian, Lewis enjoys his work.

“The best part about the job is taking care of you students and the school, making sure you guys are safe during the day.”