Ashley Ramirez

EAD 536

T4: Field Experience C

April 27, 22

Safety and Welfare

The general safety and wellbeing of a school and its operations are overseen by the school’s

principal. They may delegate this duty to the assistant principal. Within my district, safety

concerns unrelated to cleaning are not a duty of the custodial staff. If something needed to be

fixed, the school must place a work order. Then, the district’s maintenance team would make the

necessary repairs.

After reviewing the school with the lead custodian in the building, there were no major

concerns for safety for students or staff. However, there were many concerns related to

cleanliness. Several offices that are used full time had thick spider webs and counter tops that

appeared to have had spills that had dried over. Large, dead bugs were highly visible in several

locations throughout the building.

While it is a great relief that immediate danger is not a threat to the students and staff, the

cleanliness of a school has long-term effects on health, as well as the school’s culture. Dried

spills and thick cobwebs can indicate that thorough cleaning and not occur in weeks to months.

Which can leave one to believe that harder to identify dangers such as mold and termites may be

a risk. An immediate solution to this problem would be to create a checklist of daily and weekly

tasks for each section of the school. Custodians would be grouped and given a section of the

school as their focus. It would be their responsibility to sign off that they had completed the tasks

on their checklist and submit it to the lead custodian. The lead custodian would communicate
 Ashley Ramirez

EAD 536

T4: Field Experience C

April 27, 22

problems of safety and the plan for improvement. Within a week’s time, the lead custodian

would update the principal on any changes and intended improvement of cleanliness and

improved learning environment. If improvements do not occur, the principal would then be

expected to intervene.

Allocation of Resources

Custodians within my district are not school district employees; they are contracted workers.

Each school is given its own full-time staff member. More are provided based on the school’s

size. Part-time staff will come to the schools in the afternoon to clean classrooms and offices by

doing a more thorough cleaning. All cleaning supplies and items such as trash bags are provided

by the cleaning company contracted with the district. It is up to the lead custodian to ensure the

custodians of the school have the necessary number of supplies. During Covid-19’s initial

outbreak, the school district required the use of specific cleaning products. In this case, cleaning

products were provided to the custodial staff.

If other concerns related to safety, but not cleanliness, were to present themselves, it would not

be the responsibility of the custodial staff to fix the problem. For example, if an exterior door is

not properly latching and could result in anyone walking directly into the building without

following visitor policies, the principal may find a temporary fix, but they would have to submit

a request to the district’s maintenance team. This method limits the cost of safety on the school

level and is already prepaid through the contract the district has with the custodial company.
 Ashley Ramirez

EAD 536

T4: Field Experience C

April 27, 22

Procedures to Monitor and Manage

The current method used to monitor and manage the operations of the school falls into two

categories, custodians, and maintenance. The lead custodian that is at the school full time is to

report to the principal daily and complete any cleaning tasks that are asked of him or her. This is

generally maintaining the trash and cleanliness of the cafeteria and bathrooms. In the afternoons

when the afternoon staff arrives, they are under the leadership of the lead custodian. The

afternoon staff are to clean the classrooms and offices. The guidelines for cleaning offices and

classrooms are provided by the company they work for and not the school district. The

guidelines include taking out the trash, wiping down common surfaces, sweeping and

vacuuming. Due to COVID regulations, the district has required custodial staff to initial on a

daily sheet with the time they completed cleaning each room or office. Both the lead custodian

and part-time staff are to follow any directives given by the school’s administrator. Concerns

with the school’s custodial staff must be addressed with the office of human resources by the

school’s principal.

It is up to the principal to identify any hazards or safety concerns around the school. To address

these concerns, the principal may ask the custodial staff to address it if it is minimal. For

example, a principal may ask a custodian to move large packages from the walkway due to it

being a safety concern. Otherwise, the principal is to submit a work order and the district’s
 Ashley Ramirez

EAD 536

T4: Field Experience C

April 27, 22

maintenance staff will come address the issue. If the issue is not addressed properly, the director

of maintenance is to be contacted by the school’s principal.

Implications for Future Practice

During this experience, I began to envision myself as an administrator and working with other

administrators not related to education. For example, the custodial staff plays a key role in

schools and supporting a safe learning environment, if the custodial staff is contracted, the

principal is expected to communicate with their director to ensure the safety needs of students

and staff are met. As the potential site supervisor for staff that I did not request or hire, custodial

or otherwise, it is important that I maintain and strong professional community relationship with

them. In reflection to standard 7, this is a similar relationship that I would anticipate with my

teaching staff. In addition, standard 10 describes the importance of continuously looking for

areas of improvement (National Policy Board for Educational Administration, 2015). During this

field experience, I found concerns with the cleanliness of the building, however with

improvement of the relationship with the custodial staff and improving the method of tracking

and explicitly outlining custodial duties, the overall environment for students and staff will

improve.
 Ashley Ramirez

EAD 536

T4: Field Experience C

April 27, 22

References

National Policy Board for Educational Administration (2015). Professional Standards for

Educational Leaders 2015. Reston, VA: Author.