Wyoming — Joe Campbell is thankful for good colleagues and words of acknowledgment — and Magic Erasers.
“They are our godsend,” he said of the powerful cleaning pads, while using one of them to scrub a mark off a white wall in the Wyoming High School gymnasium.
Campbell, who started as a Wyoming Public Schools custodian in 2019, knows well the ins and outs of the annual deep clean of schools while teachers and students are on summer break.
“It’s a little slower pace,” he said, while at the same time describing a very rigorous-sounding schedule of top-to-bottom cleaning. Every classroom, hallway and collaborative space, down to the desks, windows, walls, floors and carpets, are tidied, washed, scrubbed and disinfected.
On a late July morning, less than four weeks before the first day of school, the Wyoming High School refresh was close to finished. Nearly 1,200 students and more than 100 staff members would soon enter the building for the first bell of the 2026-27 school year.
“We are probably at the 90-95% (completion) mark,” said Andrew Kallemeyn, WPS operations manager. “It’s the calm before the storm.”
Tallying Up Tasks with Lots of Steps
District-wide, 43 custodian and maintenance staff members were prepping all eight buildings with similar deep-cleaning projects.
“It’s crunch time,” said Kallemeyn.
While hoisting dusters, pushing sweepers and scrubbing walls, the high school crew focused on completing large-scale projects, such as a complete cleaning of the main gym that involved a lot of nitty-gritty work.
“I was dusting up that vent over there,” said Campbell, pointing across the gym.
“We are scraping up gum,” added head custodian Sara Moore, while overseeing the crew.
Moore has worked at the high school for nine years and can easily rattle off several summer projects — dozens of tasks that regularly leave her with 20,000 steps on her Apple Watch after each eight-hour workday.
She and her crew dust high on top of cabinets; scrub baseboards; remove writing and graffiti; clean cupboards, tables and chairs; and wipe down computers, phones, printers and keyboards. They also disinfect the building’s approximately 20 bathrooms with a commercial-grade cleaning system.
“We deep-clean the whole school — the stuff that we don’t get on a regular basis — so everything is shiny clean when teachers arrive,” she said.
‘Walking around, it’s kind of like, ‘Wow, we did that!’
— custodian Jessica Ortiz
Camaraderie Amidst the Cleaning
It’s a lot of work, yes, but there’s time for chitchat among the close group of workers, Moore said.
“I always say, ‘Have fun. We don’t need to be so serious,’” she said.
Moore and custodian Jessica Ortiz renamed themselves Thelma and Lousie, after the 1991 movie characters, as they joined forces in cleaning a hallway together.
Ortiz, who started as a district-wide custodial floater, said she was overjoyed to learn she had just received a permanent assignment at the high school. She brought in doughnuts to celebrate that morning.
“I just wanted to stay at the high school. I love the mess and the excitement,” she said. “When I got the email, I was like I’m staaaying! I was so excited.”
The summer work has brought a sense of accomplishment, Ortiz said, and now she is seeing the results of their efforts in the sparkling halls and classrooms.
“Walking around, it’s kind of like, ‘Wow, we did that!’” she said.
Campbell sees custodians as behind-the-scenes staff members that make a clean learning environment possible.
“We are keeping the school clean for the community, and there are a lot of times when people do notice that we have these places clean,” he said. “During the year, our custodial performance at the high school has been pretty effective.”
The first day of school is exciting — and also proof of a job well done, said custodian Shaphan Russell, who is spending the summer cleaning the high school for the second year in a row.
He said he likes the routine of the job — the daily regimen of starting, doing and finishing.
“We are able to get in there, clean everything we can’t usually clean and make sure it’s all spic and span for everyone coming in.”
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