At Orono High School, “nobody really receives the full appreciation they deserve,” principal Dave Benson said, “but we have days like secretary day and teacher appreciation day, but we don’t have a day for [the custodians] and they deserve it.”

There are 23 custodians throughout the Orono district, with six of those 23 working inside the high school.

During the day shift, students can find custodians Ed Glover and Steve Gorman doing various chores throughout the school.

Once the school day is over, the evening crew, including Lars Lanikka, Monty Hillman, Terry Swanson and Bruce Hendrickson, takes over.

“Primarily, I do both supervising and general cleanings throughout the school,” Glover said. “I also maintain the energy management system, which controls all the boilers, heat, lights, hot water and basically everything mechanical throughout the school.”

As for the evening custodians, their jobs consist of general maintenance and cleaning.

In addition to this, they are in charge of cleaning up after sporting events and other things like summer school and drivers ed, as well as helping out after school dances.

“We clean up after students and do our jobs,” said Swanson, “but students need to understand that we won’t always be here for them and [that] they need to learn to pick up after themselves.”

While the custodians are tasked with cleaning the school and doing general maintenance, they have an underlying goal of not just picking up for the students, but teaching them to begin to look after themselves. It is a “mentoring thing,” Swanson said.

Senior Rachel Hamaty is one such student that understands that the custodians have much more to offer students, and that they do so much more than what is written in their job descriptions.

“The custodians in our school are not custodians to me,” Hamaty said. “They are my friends. I can’t even begin to explain how much I have learned from them. They have given me so much advice and they know just about everything there is to know about me.”

Not many students realize that the custodians have much more to offer than just keeping their school clean.

Custodians are usually very willing to assist students in any problems they need help with and will also offer advice.

“One of my favorite things about the job is the camaraderie we have with students,” Swanson said. “There are some wonderful, wonderful students in this school.”

Although Swanson is an evening custodian and does not get to spend much of the day around students, he still manages to interact with them and said he enjoys impacting their lives when given the chance.

“One day I was sitting in the freshman hallway after school with a friend and [Terry] came by and talked with us and shared some of his knowledge,” junior Chris Lecy said. “I have gotten to know Terry pretty well over this year.”

Despite how much the custodians have to offer, not many students have spent time getting to know them.

As a consequence, some students fail to realize that there are little things they could do to help keep the school looking its best.

“I think students should always remember that school is like another home,” Hamaty said. “You should clean up after yourself because it’s not the custodians job to be underappreciated.”

Just like teachers, the custodians are staff members of the school and deserve the same amount of respect and appreciation.

Although they may not be grading papers or correcting homework, they dedicate a lot of their time to making the school a better place for the students.

“It’s kind of hard to put into words, but they truly are amazing and I have so much respect for them,” Hamaty said. “Just saying ‘thank you’ to them every now and then would be nice. If you just take one second out of your day to make theirs, that’s true character.”