A lot of work goes into this school that us as students sometimes don’t take into account. We take for granted our clean floors and classrooms which we wander about each day. When someone comes to our school for the first time, they always ask if it is new. Well, our school to this day is about 15 years old, so it isn’t necessarily old but it isn’t new either. Part of the reason why our school looks fresh on a daily basis is because of our hard working custodial staff.

During the day shift you have Dennis Cox and Jim Eldridge, who go about the school sweeping, cleaning tables, cleaning the bathrooms and doing on-demand jobs around the school. Mr. Cox has been working for the school district for about 30 years now, while Mr. Eldridge has been working for the district for about 19.

Mr. Eldridge gets here every day around 5am to turn on all the lights, vacuum rooms and the library. He also sets up the commons for the breakfast eating students by pulling out tables and chairs. By 6:45 he opens up the doors of the school to kick-off the school day. His job on a day to day basis is fairly routine like with the exception of a couple small jobs here and there. He mentioned, “Some days the work is more than others.” After work, Mr. Eldridge is a Little League Baseball coach for his son Jaren’s team. He used to partake in rock bands as a guitar player.

What’s interesting that most students don’t know is that after school is when a lot of cleaning action goes on as well. The Night Custodian crew comes in around 2pm. Led by Stephen Bassford, the Night Crew is made up of four other custodians: Lorna Neumann, Aleks Kovalenko, Justin Klein, and Michael Hayslip. They are in charge of cleaning up after any sporting event or other school related events put on after school hours. They are also in charge of vacuuming every room, cleaning the bathrooms, and polishing the floors.

But besides all their work, they also like to interact with the students. They will try to initiate conversation with students to see how they are doing or how their day is going. “I care about the students,” said Mr. Bassford during an interview.

Bassford mentioned that he loves his hard working and dedicated staff. He said, “They are the best crew in the district.”

And truly, as a student that goes here and that is about to graduate, I believe that their work and effort into making this school a welcoming place made my high school years the best they could be. I will miss walking by the E-Wing bathrooms and hearing Mr. Bassford’s music blasting or running by Mrs. Neumann’s station on my way to Murray’s and hearing her Def Leppard music playing.

So thank you AHS Custodial Staff for your great work and efforts in keeping this school clean and up and running.