Without the custodians and night workers, students would come to school every day with filthy hallways, dirty classrooms, and broken appliances. The maintenance workers do so much to try to keep the students healthy and happy. One student makes about 45-90 pounds of waste every year during lunch. Think of that times the 700 students that attend Benjamin Franklin Middle School. That’s 63,000 pounds of waste! Where does it go? How does it get cleaned up?

The BF Bolt decided get the inside scoop on the custodial staff, by interviewing Mr. Murray. Ashton Murray has worked at BF for 5 years, but has been working in the district for a very long time. He is from the small country in the caribbean called Trinidad Mr. Murray is a husband, grandfather and father of two children. He comes to school determined to change the lives of students.

Small things that Custodians do like cleaning off the table after lunch or taking out the garbage multiple times each day could drastically change children’s middle school experiences. When asked how many hours they work, Mr.Murray replied, “The day workers clock in at 6:30 every morning and stay till 3:00 when the night workers come in.” The day workers do more than imaginable. After interviewing Mr. Murray, he responded that the most challenging part of the custodial job is explaining to the students how important getting an education is and making sure the students have no excuses not to learn. “They are here to graduate, if you don’t graduate you’ve wasted all your time here, I try to make this school as comfortable as possible so the children’s main focus is education,” Murray said.

Those clean classrooms that you go to almost every day, would be dirty if it wasn’t for the night workers. After the children leave school each day, the night workers job begins. They scour every inch of BF cleaning up the messes left behind. “The night workers have to make sure each classroom and bathroom is clean before they can leave,” Said Mr. Murray. They stay late nights trying to clean the garbage off the floor next to the trash can, or maybe some scraps of paper left after a project.

Not only do they keep the school healthy by cleaning it, but the maintenance workers also work on projects to make the school look beautiful.  A big part of all the outside projects you see going on in BF is due to the custodians at work. Maintaining the outside part of school is just as is just as important as keeping the inside clean. Murray explains, “Whenever it looks like its about the rain we have to go to the basement and make sure the leaves are cleaned up and not clogging the drain so the school won’t flood.” They are also responsible in the winter for making sure that the walkways are shoveled clean from snow.

Most students goal in life is to grow up to be healthy, successful, and fulfilled, the janitors help the children achieve this goal. When asked the most rewarding part of his job Mr. Murray responded, “I love to talk to students, that what motivates me.” Try to show an act of kindness, dedicated towards the maintenance staff, like making a card, giving them a high five, even a simple smile could let them know that the students appreciate the work they do.