Custodians are earning their night's repose
BY AALIYAH PAUL and RACHEL CRAIG
As students stream out of the building at 2 p.m. each day to the buses, to their jobs and to afternoon activities, six dedicated adults move against this human tide to work the night shift.
They empty trash, scrub tables, and wash whiteboards and chalkboards in all 79 classrooms of Bonny Eagle High School. Each night they clean and disinfect all 12 restrooms, as well as the 10 offices, two teachers rooms, and random alcoves, corners and crevices scattered around the building.
On some days they have a special project, such as setting up the gymnasium for a spirit assembly. If the medical need arises, they go so far as to disinfect all the door knobs. All six had other jobs before becoming custodians, from managing warehouses, to cooking at the University of Southern Maine, to potato processing and meat packing in Aroostook County. Yet now they dedicate their nights to keeping our building clean and our students healthy.
Their night runs from 2:30 until 11:00 p.m. Each custodian is assigned an area or floor. Amanda Everett, a Bonny Eagle graduate, works the second floor of the old wing. She passes the time by listening to podcasts from National Public Radio, especially The Moth and TED Radio Hour. An avid hunter of turkey and deer, she has recently taken up fly fishing. While she sometimes finds it difficult to sleep after a night on the job, she loves the fact that working this shift leaves her days free. And each year she counts the days for hunting season to begin. “My blind’s set up and I have a doe permit,” she declared in early November.
Like many of his colleagues, Dennis Pomerleau has been working the night shift for years in different Bonny Eagle school buildings. While he enjoys the ability to get a lot of personal business accomplished during the daylight hours, he finds the pace of the evenings hectic, noting “there’s a lot of work and not many people.” Before coming to work at Bonny Eagle, he worked for 36 years at Sylvania doing a little bit of everything: production, maintenance, shipping and receiving. While he enjoys listening to the Oldies as he works, he says it’s not quite as much fun as driving the forklift.
Laurie Marston has worked at BEHS for a little over a year. Previously, she worked as a cook at USM before she was laid off, and then as a nighttime custodian somewhere else for nine years. She says the best part of her job is the people. She enjoys interacting with both students and staff once the school day is over and the pace—for everyone except the night shift custodians–is a bit less hectic. Still, she’d be even happier if all of us were a little more thoughful picking up our food. To pass the time she listens to ‘70s and ‘80s music on Pandora.
Andy Bertin, the crew chief, has been working in SAD 6 for 19 years. He does whatever work needs to be done, from mowing lawns in the summer to clearing icy walkways in winter. Before working the night shift here at BEHS, Andy worked as a carpenter and apple orchard pruner. While he likes working the night shift, he doesn’t enjoy being away from his family during the evening hours. He has two granddaughters, and his girlfriend has a son as well. He says the strangest thing he has ever encountered while working was “romantic involvement.” Unfortunately, he declined to elaborate. He claims the most irritating aspects of his job are bathroom and locker room messes, including deodorant fights and paper towel ‘mayhem.’ However, there are pros to the job. He enjoys interacting with staff and students after school hours when they have down time to relax versus the rush of the school day when they have no time to chat. He listens to 103.3 HEB on Mr. Zimmel’s radio to pass the time. One thing he wishes to address is “sometimes it can be a little bit hard when somebody tries to get you for something when you’re in the middle of something else.”
David Ouellette has been working as a custodian for five years. Four of those years as a custodian were spent in Hollis; this is his very first year as a custodian at BEH. Before he started work as a custodian, he worked in the Press company. David says that getting home late is the worst part of his job. When he gets home he can’t go right to sleep despite all of the work he has done, so he unwinds by sitting on the couch and watching sports news. His favorite of the job is that “Nobody is in [their] way at night,” making cleaning much easier. One thing he wishes people understood was, “how hard we work.” Something that really annoys him is, “When kids dirty stuff up after it just got cleaned .… but that’s gonna happen.” The weirdest thing he’s seen is a snake, which he had to pick up and throw back outside. Unlike his colleagues, he doesn’t listen to music while working, preferring to focus on the task at hand.
Lisa Shannon, another night shift custodian, says that the typical night looks like, “just a whole lot of cleaning and whatever else needs to be done.” She has been working as a custodian for 15 years, 12 of those in the neighboring town of Gorham and three in the MSAD 6 school system. This is her first year at BEHS. Before she became a custodian, she worked potato processing andmeat packing jobs, and as a floor technician for Servicemaster at grocery stores. She says that during all of her years at Gorham as a custodian, her shift was during the day. She misses interacting with the kids, but now that she has the night shift, she enjoys how things that she has cleaned stay clean for longer. Another thing she enjoys is that she has all day to do whatever she pleases. Her least favorite thing is not being able to interact with the kids while she works. She said that it’s fun to talk to them during the day and see how their days are going and cheer them up when they’re down.
Another thing that she doesn’t really like about being a night shift custodian is that the kids don’t get to know them, so they might not respect them as much or be as friendly. On a funny note, the strangest thing Lisa has found while working as a custodian are live fish in a toilet. “Does anybody have a fishing pole?” She laughed. Soon after, a student removed the fish, and from there she doesn’t know what happened to the fish. And lastly, Lisa says that to pass the time she listens to, “classic rock, especially on Fridays Joe Walsh & life’s been good. It has a great beat.”
At 11:00 p.m. a primal scream blankets the towns of SAD 6 as student laptops automatically shut off; a quieter sigh escapes the lips of the night shift custodians as their workday comes to an end. The floors are clean, the boards washed, the bathrooms disinfected.
Or, as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote of The Village Blacksmith;
“Toiling,--rejoicing,--sorrowing,
Onward through life [they go];
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose."
As students stream out of the building at 2 p.m. each day to the buses, to their jobs and to afternoon activities, six dedicated adults move against this human tide to work the night shift.
They empty trash, scrub tables, and wash whiteboards and chalkboards in all 79 classrooms of Bonny Eagle High School. Each night they clean and disinfect all 12 restrooms, as well as the 10 offices, two teachers rooms, and random alcoves, corners and crevices scattered around the building.
On some days they have a special project, such as setting up the gymnasium for a spirit assembly. If the medical need arises, they go so far as to disinfect all the door knobs. All six had other jobs before becoming custodians, from managing warehouses, to cooking at the University of Southern Maine, to potato processing and meat packing in Aroostook County. Yet now they dedicate their nights to keeping our building clean and our students healthy.
Their night runs from 2:30 until 11:00 p.m. Each custodian is assigned an area or floor. Amanda Everett, a Bonny Eagle graduate, works the second floor of the old wing. She passes the time by listening to podcasts from National Public Radio, especially The Moth and TED Radio Hour. An avid hunter of turkey and deer, she has recently taken up fly fishing. While she sometimes finds it difficult to sleep after a night on the job, she loves the fact that working this shift leaves her days free. And each year she counts the days for hunting season to begin. “My blind’s set up and I have a doe permit,” she declared in early November.
Like many of his colleagues, Dennis Pomerleau has been working the night shift for years in different Bonny Eagle school buildings. While he enjoys the ability to get a lot of personal business accomplished during the daylight hours, he finds the pace of the evenings hectic, noting “there’s a lot of work and not many people.” Before coming to work at Bonny Eagle, he worked for 36 years at Sylvania doing a little bit of everything: production, maintenance, shipping and receiving. While he enjoys listening to the Oldies as he works, he says it’s not quite as much fun as driving the forklift.
Laurie Marston has worked at BEHS for a little over a year. Previously, she worked as a cook at USM before she was laid off, and then as a nighttime custodian somewhere else for nine years. She says the best part of her job is the people. She enjoys interacting with both students and staff once the school day is over and the pace—for everyone except the night shift custodians–is a bit less hectic. Still, she’d be even happier if all of us were a little more thoughful picking up our food. To pass the time she listens to ‘70s and ‘80s music on Pandora.
Andy Bertin, the crew chief, has been working in SAD 6 for 19 years. He does whatever work needs to be done, from mowing lawns in the summer to clearing icy walkways in winter. Before working the night shift here at BEHS, Andy worked as a carpenter and apple orchard pruner. While he likes working the night shift, he doesn’t enjoy being away from his family during the evening hours. He has two granddaughters, and his girlfriend has a son as well. He says the strangest thing he has ever encountered while working was “romantic involvement.” Unfortunately, he declined to elaborate. He claims the most irritating aspects of his job are bathroom and locker room messes, including deodorant fights and paper towel ‘mayhem.’ However, there are pros to the job. He enjoys interacting with staff and students after school hours when they have down time to relax versus the rush of the school day when they have no time to chat. He listens to 103.3 HEB on Mr. Zimmel’s radio to pass the time. One thing he wishes to address is “sometimes it can be a little bit hard when somebody tries to get you for something when you’re in the middle of something else.”
David Ouellette has been working as a custodian for five years. Four of those years as a custodian were spent in Hollis; this is his very first year as a custodian at BEH. Before he started work as a custodian, he worked in the Press company. David says that getting home late is the worst part of his job. When he gets home he can’t go right to sleep despite all of the work he has done, so he unwinds by sitting on the couch and watching sports news. His favorite of the job is that “Nobody is in [their] way at night,” making cleaning much easier. One thing he wishes people understood was, “how hard we work.” Something that really annoys him is, “When kids dirty stuff up after it just got cleaned .… but that’s gonna happen.” The weirdest thing he’s seen is a snake, which he had to pick up and throw back outside. Unlike his colleagues, he doesn’t listen to music while working, preferring to focus on the task at hand.
Lisa Shannon, another night shift custodian, says that the typical night looks like, “just a whole lot of cleaning and whatever else needs to be done.” She has been working as a custodian for 15 years, 12 of those in the neighboring town of Gorham and three in the MSAD 6 school system. This is her first year at BEHS. Before she became a custodian, she worked potato processing andmeat packing jobs, and as a floor technician for Servicemaster at grocery stores. She says that during all of her years at Gorham as a custodian, her shift was during the day. She misses interacting with the kids, but now that she has the night shift, she enjoys how things that she has cleaned stay clean for longer. Another thing she enjoys is that she has all day to do whatever she pleases. Her least favorite thing is not being able to interact with the kids while she works. She said that it’s fun to talk to them during the day and see how their days are going and cheer them up when they’re down.
Another thing that she doesn’t really like about being a night shift custodian is that the kids don’t get to know them, so they might not respect them as much or be as friendly. On a funny note, the strangest thing Lisa has found while working as a custodian are live fish in a toilet. “Does anybody have a fishing pole?” She laughed. Soon after, a student removed the fish, and from there she doesn’t know what happened to the fish. And lastly, Lisa says that to pass the time she listens to, “classic rock, especially on Fridays Joe Walsh & life’s been good. It has a great beat.”
At 11:00 p.m. a primal scream blankets the towns of SAD 6 as student laptops automatically shut off; a quieter sigh escapes the lips of the night shift custodians as their workday comes to an end. The floors are clean, the boards washed, the bathrooms disinfected.
Or, as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote of The Village Blacksmith;
“Toiling,--rejoicing,--sorrowing,
Onward through life [they go];
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose."