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“In June and July, when the grass is growing, we’ll spend four hours a day, every day, mowing,” said Ken Stratman, head custodian for Bangor.
West Salem School District maintenance supervisor Mark Ledman has even more ground to cover — 17 acres are around the elementary school alone. Consequently his staff devotes even more time to grass and related issues.
“I’ve got a guy who mows eight hours a day, but it’s more than one guy can handle all by himself. Sometimes we have to give him extra help — especially if the grass needs to be cut for an athletic event.”
Stratman has a staff of four others beside himself. West Salem is a bigger district and that’s reflected in the size of Ledman’s staff. He has 12 custodians plus two maintenance employees working for him during the summer.
Both men combine their first and second shifts in the summer because of the lack of school events during evening hours. At Bangor, the work day runs from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. At West Salem it’s 6:30 a.m to 2:30 p.m, although there’s some flexibility built in.
“In summer we can fly a little looser; things aren’t as set as they are during the school year when you absolutely have to have someone in a certain place,” Ledman said.
In June, both staffs have to work around summer school classes and West Salem has another summer school session in August.
Before coming to Bangor, Stratman was a service mechanic at Johnson Controls. That repair background comes in handy when something breaks down. Like Stratman, Ledman saves the biggest projects for the summer months when interruptions will be at a minimum.
“This year, we had less major projects than normal. We are building a wall in a room in the elementary school, but in previous years we’ve had to move or put up quite a few walls,” Ledman said.
Stratman said the biggest project for Bangor is the high school gym floor.
“We remove the finish with fine grit sandpaper then reseal with two coats of polyurethane,” Stratman said. “We do the old high school gymnasium as well.”
Perhaps the biggest project of all is one that both custodial staffs undertake every summer: a thorough top-to-bottom cleaning of every single room.
“If you think about going through every single room in the district, that’s a lot of rooms,” Stratman said.
Stratman, who’s been with Bangor since 2002, calls the job of making sure each room is ready for the coming year “deep cleaning,” and Ledman agrees.
“We start from the top,” Ledman said. “We clean the lenses on the lights and work our way down. We’ll clean the walls if needed, do the furniture, the counter and cupboards, then do the floors or carpeting.”
Ledman also said that he’s been doing a lot more computer wiring of late as programs like CompassLearning have become more popular.
Ledman, who’s worked at West Salem since the year after his graduation in 1976, said he has always enjoyed the summer months.
“For custodians it’s a nice change of pace,” he said. “In some ways, there’s more physical work, yet it’s more fulfilling and there’s more camaraderie (with both shifts together). The guys enjoy doing different things — it keeps things fresh.”
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