[dropcap]G[/dropcap]rabbing his bright yellow cart filled with cleaning supplies, Mr. Anthony Salazar prepares for his shift doing one of the most thankless jobs on campus as a TCHS custodian. Making his way upstairs to the 500 wing, Mr. Salazar begins his workday at 2:30 p.m. and finishes at 11 p.m. For the last four years, he has been one of seven custodians responsible for maintaining classrooms and cleaning up after students at the end of
school days.
Students can count on clean, functioning classrooms because of our custodians. However, things work so well that students rarely consider the effort that goes into keeping a high school campus as clean as ours. The fact that our custodians work hard and receive little recognition is not lost on everyone.
“It’s a tough job that [Salazar] does, and he does it very well,” math teacher Mark Howard said. “And the other thing is when you think about it, he’s not here when we’re here, so he doesn’t have the people around seeing that he’s doing that work every day.”
Along with dusting, cleaning whiteboards, washing desks and mopping the floors in classrooms daily, another aspect of Mr. Salazar’s job is cleaning up after students who have had accidents or have gotten sick. After working at our school for four years, he has collected some interesting stories, some more memorable than others.
“I think the worst was having to clean up after bodily fluids. I had to clean up one time when a kid urinated in class, disinfecting it and throwing stuff away,” Salazar said. “You just wear the right clothing and disinfect the heck out of it.”
As a TCHS alum, Mr. Salazar has a personal attachment to the school. His job description requires him to clean classrooms that he remembers sitting in as a student. Because of this personal connection, Mr. Salazar takes pride in his work every day.
Although working as a custodian can be challenging, the camaraderie of working with fellow utility workers and other staff members makes Mr. Salazar’s job worthwhile. For Mr. Salazar, perhaps the most enjoyable part of his job is seeing students grow not only in height, but grow as people.
“When I first started, I coached freshmen football, so it’s a pretty good feeling seeing kids mature from squirrely kids to intelligent young people,” Mr. Salazar said. “You see them thrive and win big games and things of that nature. Sometimes they come and talk to you about things that they can’t talk about with another adult and ask for advice.”
Sadly, students have not always shown Mr. Salazar the appreciation he deserves. Now, it’s too late to say thank you for a job well done; Mr. Salazar’s last day at TCHS was Nov. 7. He started his new job at Cloverly Elementary School on Nov. 8.
Mr. Salazar helped our campus function smoothly these past four years. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, Mr. Salazar is definitely on the short list of those who should be thanked for keeping our campus running, and there are many who are sad to see him go.