Isaiah McCoy sprays disinfectant in a Bloomington High School South bathroom Wednesday. The custodial staff dos this five times a day, between each class period. Staff photo by Rich Janzaruk
Glen Stidd has always taken a lot of pride in whatever he’s doing.
For a while, he taught automotive technology at Hoosier Hills Career Center. Then he was a coach at Bloomington High School South, where he and his sons graduated. Now in his sixth year as a custodian, he said all of those perspectives have been helpful.
“I get it, what the coaches want,” said Stidd, the custodial supervisor at South. “I get what the teachers want, I get what a parent wants for their kid, which has helped me a whole lot to realize what we needed to do to get a standard operating plan.”
Custodians were among the school employees who had to quickly adapt to the pandemic, some with new objects to clean including desk shields, and a more rigorous sanitization schedule throughout the school day. Custodians say the pandemic has changed their own outlook on the work they do, and they expect the level of cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting happening currently to become the norm.
“The COVID thing has made us appreciate what we do more, because it’s not just taking care of a physical structure as in a building or a game field,” Stidd said. “It’s actually taking care of the people that are occupying that structure during the day.”
© 2024 HeraldTimesOnline, Bloomington, IN