Editorial Board: PPS needs more custodians, students can help by cleaning up after themselves
This article was originally published by The Cardinal Times Editorial Board on 5/21/25
It is no secret that the custodians at Lincoln are understaffed and have been for years. The Cardinal Times has provided continuous coverage of this problem since 2021. This ongoing issue leads to classrooms and other areas of the school receiving inadequate cleaning since custodians don’t have enough time, staffing or resources
Lack of custodial staff also leads to custodial staff being overworked, having to not only come in five days a week, but also overtime during holidays and breaks, weekends and events.
Sophomore Avaneesh Sistla expresses his concerns over the custodians’ work during winter break.
“[A custodian] told me that they still had to come in every day over winter break except Christmas to clean the school,” said Sistla. “They had to come in even on Christmas Eve.”
The shortage in custodial staff at Lincoln is also increased by shortages around the district. Lead custodian at Lincoln Roger Hastings finds that he loses staff due to other schools being short staffed.
“The head custodian [of MLC] needed a day off for whatever reason, but kids [and staff] are still coming to school [and]… there needs to be a custodian there,” said Hastings. “My day man got pulled at six o’clock this morning to go cover MLC [because of that.]”
Hastings believes that a substitute pool would help alleviate the pressure placed on custodians when custodians call out sick or need to be assigned to other buildings.
“Custodians rely on consistency and staffing. If I’m [cleaning] the same part of the same building every day, I know what I did yesterday, and I’m going to do something else today with my extra time,” said Hastings. “But, if I have to spend my extra time going up to another floor and [filling for another custodian,] then I don’t have extra time to take care of my area. I do the minimum, and I have to move on.”
Business manager Jill Ross finds that, due to the custodians being understaffed, even some students help cleaning the building.
“We have our main office TAs help vacuum the stairwells because we don’t have enough support staff at night cleaning the classrooms to have them clean the stairwells as well,” said Ross. “I have TAs help clean the windows because that doesn’t get done. The general cleanliness of the school doesn’t happen.”
A substitute pool would allow for the same amount of ground to be covered by the custodians, as anyone missing would have their space filled by another substitute. Lincoln business manager Jill Ross echoes this change, and also advocates for two groups of custodians that work during different days.
“We should have a Sunday through Thursday [shift] and then a Tuesday through Saturday [shift] because we have so many weekend activities that need custodians. The only people who can staff that are people who are working full time that then have to work overtime and they get completely burnt out,” said Ross. “Not only do we need more custodians, but we need more custodians who are available at different hours so that we can fill in spaces when we need it.”
With upcoming budget cuts and PPS removing two full time custodial positions for Lincoln that were in process of being filled, it is unlikely that these solutions will be implemented soon.
Students can help custodians by cleaning up after themselves after lunch and in bathrooms, and being respectful of the Lincoln building. Ross emphasizes cleaning up for yourself during lunch.
“The amount of extra work that is done in the cafeteria every day is insane. The amount of students who eat lunch, leave their lunch on the table, leave their chairs out [is astonishing]. If everybody would just pick up after themselves, and push [their] chair in to make it easier to come back through and clean,” said Ross.“That would… probably save 30 minutes in their day.”
Preventing vandalism, specifically in bathrooms, would also help custodians clean more of the building.
“It’s incredible. This place was brand new three years ago … The amount of vandalism in the bathrooms is astronomical. We can’t keep up. I had to go in here and shut off the toilet because somebody vandalized it,” Hastings said.
This article is so embarrassing for PPS. What happened to a culture of simply cleaning up after yourself. What happened to volunteerism. Are Lincoln students so entitled? We have money for bricks and mortar but not enough for operations and custodians. We need a change in culture and values.