While most students arrive at Lexington High School around the first bell in the morning, the building has already been awake for hours. The school custodians have been at work, ensuring that everything is ready for the day ahead.
Many school custodians begin their shifts long before the first bell rings at 8:25 a.m. Some, such as custodian Gregory Lemay, arrive as early as 5:00 a.m. Lemay has worked as a custodian for nearly 20 years and has been at LHS for almost four.
“It takes me about 45 minutes to open up the main building and all the outer buildings. It’s a lot of walking,” Lemay said.
After the building is unlocked, the rest of the day is filled with a wide variety of tasks. Custodians clean hallways and classrooms, deliver packages around the building, maintain the Commons, and respond to calls when an area needs to be sanitized.
Although many students only notice custodians during the school day, their responsibilities continue even after the final bell rings. Additionally, days off, such as snow days, are still workdays for custodial staff. Custodians stay on campus during severe weather conditions to ensure that school grounds will be safe as soon as possible.
“Any time that school’s closed for snow, we have to come in and shovel out all of the snow,” Lemay said. “So the last blizzard that we had, the Monday and Tuesday you guys were off, we were here.”
Despite the hard work, physical labor, and early mornings, Lemay enjoys his job and takes pride in his work.
“I love to clean. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved to clean. I love cleaning the stairs and classrooms because you never know how dirty they get, and you get surprised by how much dirt you get from stairs,” Lemay said.
While their work often happens behind the scenes, custodians are deeply woven into the fabric of LHS. Teachers rely on them to resolve problems around the campus, leading to meaningful interactions with both teachers and students.
“Since I work [the] day shift, most of the teachers recognize my face; they say good morning. Any time that there’s a problem, they see me and are like ‘Oh! Hey, can you help me?’ The kids are great—you guys see me every day. [Even if] we’re in the background, we’re always there,” Lemay said.
For some custodians, the LHS student body motivates them to get through long and tiring days.
“[What keeps me motivated is] just the pride and joy of just coming in, doing my job, seeing all of you. Because literally without all of you guys, I don’t have a job here,” Lemay said. For Lemay, daily interactions are what make the job meaningful.
One thing Lemay hopes students understand about custodial work is the amount of effort required to maintain the school each day.
“I think it’s how much we clean, how much we take care of this place. I think that’s kind of underrated. The challenge is … how hard it will be to keep [the new high school] clean,” Lemay said. “If students could stop putting gum on the floor, that would be great!”
