The Janitorial Crew: Who Cleans Up After You?

Every day, hundreds of students flood the halls of Air Academy High School. Although this may not seem like a big deal to the students themselves, it takes a special type of person to be able to make their living cleaning up after a chaotic crowd of teenagers.

These people are the AAHS janitors, and they may very well be the most overlooked staff members in our high school.

“I think the janitors are really important to Air Academy,” said sophomore Faith Poling. “They have to clean so much of our trash and waste daily. I try to clean up after myself, but of course, each of us accidentally or in other cases, purposefully, leave trash in places for the janitors to clean up. They deserve a lot more recognition.”

The common consensus seems to be that the janitors are overlooked and perform a very important role in Air Academy’s functioning. Although students may not know a whole lot about the janitorial duties, they know they are essential.

“Kids at this school are so messy, and if we [had] to clean up our own mess, our school would be chaos,” said sophomore Isabel Sorenson. “I do my best to clean up after myself because I know it’s not an easy job. They should get paid more.”

Now although the students may seem to have a high opinion of the janitors, what do these faculty members think of themselves?

“Although I don’t know how [students] think of us, I think teachers have an idea about how much work we do,” said Tim Clark, head custodian and building manager. “We maintain lights, clean floors, and paint walls.”

Although janitorial duties may seem like a boring job, there is more to Clark’s job than first meets the eye. In such an old school with such a rich history, it is much more interesting to clean than many would think at first.

“Some of the school is sixty years old, and there’s a lot to maintain in old buildings. We were cleaning out Mr. Buhler’s room, and we found some old photography stuff from back when film had to be developed in darkrooms,” said Clark.

Although the janitorial duties may be thought of as simply maintaining the building, the staff additionally has to keep the track and field in working condition as well. Without the school janitors, the sports and out of school activities wouldn’t be able to commence.

Without a doubt, janitors and the building planning staff are the glue that holds Air Academy High School together. At over sixty years old, AAHS is a treasure trove of memories and history.

Without the janitors, who you once thought simply cleaned trash, these memories and this history would be nothing more than that, just memories and history. The janitors at our school keep the physical embodiment of every high school class for the past sixty years alive to this day.