Dirty hallways and classrooms, fields left unmowed for so long that they become a danger to students in gym class practicing on them, custodians required to carry a punishing workload who are written up if they can’t match the required pace. All these reports and more have been straggling in for weeks about many schools in the Houston ISD.
Faced with a massive shortfall of funding after the federal pandemic monies came to a halt, HISD Superintendent Mike Miles and his administration began looking for areas to cut and one area of service deemed less essential than teachers or lessons was determined to be the cleanup and maintenance crews.
Cutting the number of maintenance and custodial workers by 444 spots has led predictably enough, to accelerating bad effects on campuses. Not only are buildings and grounds less well maintained, but a number of overwhelmed custodians have quit, according to Wretha Thomas, president of the Houston Educational Support Personal Blue Collars Union. As a result, her union is losing members, she said.
“They had custodians assigned to like 15 classrooms, now they got them double doing 30 rooms in less time so the schools are not getting cleaned. They’re not getting cleaned properly.,” Thomas said, adding that “They’re pushing them to do something that’s impossible.
“Then they write the custodians up because they don’t get the schools clean. I talked to the administration and I told them they shouldn’t be harassing those custodians because they know what the problem is. But they’re still writing them up.”
Thomas said she has talked about the situation with Alishia Jolivette, who has been over Facilities Maintenance and Operations and now is serving as interim Chief Operating Officer. “I think she’s doing the best she can with what she has to work with,” Thomas said.
The employee writeups of custodians are being done by designated plant managers at every school, she said. “They gave them a good raise to be an overseer of the slaves in the field.”
One union rep Marcela Cook termed the situation “terrible.” Middle schools have two or three custodians while high schools have three or four now. Some previously had seven custodians before the cuts. A few still have a full crew, she said.
One teacher explained the effects of fields going unmowed over the summer. “When they finally mowed, it left hay all over the field. The hay covered up the grass and killed most of it. Grass holds dirt in place. With no grass, rain creates holes and uneven area. In five days of after school football practice, we have already had two students fall victim to holes. One of them had to be wheelchaired off the field.”
In response to questions about this, HISD issued the following statement:
“HISD is deeply committed to supporting our schools and ensuring that students can learn in safe, clean environments. Our dedicated team of 1,302 custodians and maintenance workers, along with supervisors and Building Services Managers, plays a crucial role in maintaining the health and safety of our campuses, from daily cleaning to preventing and addressing mold issues.
“While staffing was adjusted from 1,746 in 2023 to our current number to invest more resources in the classroom, we remain focused on ensuring that our schools operate smoothly. We continue to prioritize the needs of our campuses and will assess and adjust staffing levels as necessary to ensure that students and educators have the facilities they need to succeed.
“Custodians and building service managers are responsible for daily cleaning and mold prevention. Situations are elevated to the Risk Management Department as needed.”
Some campuses have gotten to the point that their principals have appealed to parents to volunteer to do the mowing. When asked about this at one board meeting, Miles said he saw nothing wrong with this.
This Saturday there will be a job fair for custodians from 9 a.m. to noon at Yates High School, 3650 Alabama, As the ad for it says: “Clean schools make a difference for our students and staff.”
How much are they needed? Well just for grins, a teacher at one school noticed a food wrapper that had been on the floor a while in one room. The teacher recorded the date. A month later, that same wrapper was still there.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
