The custodians of South Windsor High School work hard every single day at the school, but almost no one knows what they truly do day to day.
There are 12 custodians at South Windsor High School school, 11 full time and 1 part time. Of the dozen, Don Wilson is the eldest, and has worked 52 years as a custodian in South Windsor. Wilson discovered his interest in the custodial profession during high school.
“I went in for our senior class car wash and the cafeteria was chained shut, but a teacher wanted to get in, and the custodian hadn’t shown [up]. So, I took the door apart and I fixed the broken mechanism in the process,” Wilson told the Prowl.
The head custodian of Wilson’s school was impressed that he had been able to fix the door, and told him if he ever wanted to be a custodian, he should see him. A few years after graduating high school, Wilson began his custodial career at Timothy Edwards Middle School, and has been a custodian ever since.
Tommy Pelati, another one of South Windsor High Schools dedicated custodians, has been working as a SWHS custodian for a decade.
“It’s terrific, you know, I like being around people. Helping out students and stuff like that,” Pelati says.
Pelati comes in every morning to open the school and enjoys doing his work. But work as a custodian is not always easy, especially after lunch. Pelati describes this, saying, “Sometimes it can be challenging, like after lunch, we gotta clean everything up right away, but you know nothing crazy crazy, if you work at it you get through it”.
The biggest way to help the SWHS custodians is by cleaning up after yourself at lunch.
A lot of people also have misconceptions about what custodians do, some people think that they just clean but according to SWHS custodian Kevin Maliza,“We do a lot more than clean. We clean, we fix, we set up and break down programs. I have more paperwork then they would think a custodian has.”
The main difference between custodians and janitors is that janitors mostly clean, while custodians perform a wide range of tasks around the school to ensure everything runs smoothly.
Some of the custodians have additional jobs outside of the school, like Ted Everett, a longtime SWHS custodian. He has held roles as an actor in multiple movies over the past few years.
Overall, the custodians of South Windsor High School work hard every single day, before and after school. Doing everything from cleaning up after lunch, to organizing the day’s events, they do the thankless jobs that make the school what it is.
