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Published on 04/28/1997 All articles from this issue

LASD teachers, officials agree: more custodian time in the classroom

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By Linda Taaffe

Special to the Town Crier

While the number of classrooms and students has increased in the Los Altos School District, the number of custodians has remained the same, leaving some teachers concerned about school cleanliness.

The Los Altos Teacher's Association negotiated their contract with the Los Altos school board this month to improve the level of custodial services in district schools. The board agreed to include funding for major maintenance items in any school bond election.

"The classrooms aren't dirty. They're cleaned every day," Superintendent Marge Gratiot said. "A lot of teachers would like the custodians to spend more time in the classroom. That's the issue."

Gratiot said the number of custodians hasn't increased since the last parcel tax passed eight years ago. Only 13 full-time custodians are responsible for cleaning the district's nine schools, she said. This means there are approximately one and a half custodians per school, Gratiot said.

Gratiot said this number was sufficient eight years ago, but since then the district has added 54 more classrooms. Each school has approximately 30 classrooms and 600 students, Gratiot said.

Kerry Hirigan, maintenance and operations manager, said in order to clean all of the school buildings, custodians are only able to spend 15 minutes in each classroom.

Sometimes they must alternate cleaning rooms, so some classes are only cleaned every other day, he said.

Gratiot said if the parcel tax passes in June, the district may hire two to three more custodians, allowing larger schools to have two full-time custodians. She said this will also bring the ratio of custodians per student closer together.

Stephen Peck, principal at Santa Rita elementary school, said the school is at a point where something needs to be done immediately. He said enrollment at Santa Rita has increased from 300 to 500 students during the past few years.

He said it is impossible for the one full-time day custodian and two part-time night custodians to clean the school efficiently.

The Santa Rita campus has 24 rooms, not including the library, computer lab or bathrooms, he said.

Peck said the custodians don't have time to clean windows, desks, fixtures or blackboards, so the classrooms are only cleaned thoroughly once a year. He said the trash cans, the sinks and the floors are the only things cleaned daily.

"It's not as visible as if the school had a hole in the ceiling or the windows were falling out, but there's no question about it, the classrooms are not as clean," Peck said. "The amount of time spent in each room is minimal with the existing staff. That's the problem."

Peck said staff and students at Santa Rita have picked up some of the slack of maintenance through special cleaning days such as "Spring Clean-up Day. "

The students and teachers volunteer to do things such as rake, paint, or fix broken benches, he said.

While these events have been successful, the issue remains how to maintain school facilities on a regular basis, Peck said.