Before sunrise, when the halls of Del Oro High savor the silence and peace that come before the first students arrive, the school’s custodians are already busy sweeping and mopping floors as part of their daily duties.
Even if their work and dedication is not noticed, custodians play an important role at keeping Del Oro spotless and running smoothly. Del Oro’s custodians arrive on campus around 5 or 6 in the morning, right as the sun rises, and they quickly begin dealing with the mess that students have left for them from the previous day. Keeping Del Oro tidy can be a daunting task, but it’s one the school’s custodians gladly undertake so that students have a clean place to learn.
Andy Ramirez has worked in the Kern High School District for five years. He’s been at Del Oro since the school opened in the fall of 2022. While students are still deep asleep, Ramirez is already on campus at 6 a.m.
“I enjoy just doing what I love to do, like pretty much working with power tools and being able to interact with students and staff,” Ramirez shared.
Ramirez said there are no hard days or difficult tasks when he’s taking care of the campus. Dealing with Bakersfield heat is another issue however.
“It’s just – you know what I mean,” he said. “It’s hot.”
However, trash around campus continues to be a problem. There are trash cans placed not too far away from student areas like the tables, field, bathrooms, and cafeteria – yet students often dodge them or just miss their aim at these trash cans, leaving garbage scattered everywhere around campus.
“Oh, I mean if I catch them at least you know tell them you gotta clean that and try to be more responsible,” Ramirez said. “One day, you never know, you might be working somewhere and you don’t want nobody throwing thrash as well”, Ramirez said.
Something that helps custodians a lot is when teachers step in to tell students to clean up after themselves.
“It helps a little bit because it kinda shows them what responsibility is,” he said.
Former custodian Jaekub Franco, who now works at Del Oro as a campus security officer, worked as a custodian for a year and a half. He shared his experience on being a custodian.
“It’s just disrespectful,” Franco said of students who don’t pick up after themselves. “That just shows me there is no structure at home.”
He mentions how easy it is for students to make the campus look more presentable.
“As you can see around these tables there are trash cans literally 1-2 feet away from you,” he said. “They can literally get up, turn around and throw the trash away. If they can just learn to do that it can make this campus look so much better.”
When April comes around the corner it brings several challenges to custodians such as confetti eggs. During the month of April students tend to bring confetti eggs, a custodian’s worst nightmare. Both custodians have a different perspective on them.
“Oh it’s crazy. It’s not hard work but it’s hot in April and it’s just more time consuming for us to clean,” Ramirez said.
On the other hand, Franco admitted and shared, “Confetti is harder to clean, the flour sweeps off easy confetti. It likes to stick in the laminate floors in the cafeteria so you would literally have to pick it up by hand.”
Spanish teacher Erik Villegas shared his perspective on the confetti egg issue and mentioned that he’s disappointed to see students damage the school.
“I think when this time of the year comes, I think the policies we have here in the high school should be a little bit more stricter,” he said. “Instead of suspending [students] or calling home, make them clean and then from there own it. That’s just my thoughts on Easter eggs.”
Villegas said he believes it’s not cool or funny to make a mess because custodians already have a lot to clean.
“If it was my mom or anybody’s mom or parent you know you wouldn’t be doing that, so why do it here on campus?” he said.
