They Don't Just Push a Broom

School custodians, the 'guardians' of indoor air quality, get a new tool from NEA.

Photo by Tom Downey

The indoor air quality of Torrington High School (THS) in rural Wyoming heads south twice weekly when the cattle come east to auction. Pungent brown and green dust wafts from the Torrington Livestock Auction grounds, over the THS football field and into the jurisdiction of head custodian Bob McCarty. "It's hard to keep the school clean," he says with a shudder.

McCarty, who supervises the cleaning and maintenance of THS's five buildings, is understandably "passionate" about the issue of sickening indoor air, whether he's talking about dust, mold, or chemicals.

And this nine-year veteran knows his trade. He can list the finer points of good school housekeeping and preventive maintenance—everything from the use of environmentally safe cleaning chemicals to the proper inspection of roofs, filters, and air intake vents.

McCarty, and many other ESPs like him, are what NEA President Reg Weaver calls "guardians of the indoor air environment." That's why two NEA units, the Health Information Network (HIN) and the ESP Quality Department, recently consulted with McCarty and other seasoned custodial staffers to create a useful new brochure, Take a Deep Breath and Thank Your Custodian.

This easy-to-follow document focuses on custodian "tips and tools" for minimizing staff and student exposure to common indoor air hazards. It also outlines steps local affiliates should take to move administrators off the dime on indoor air quality (IAQ) issues, from drafting a detailed action plan to building a local health and safety committee.

"This brochure doesn't just recommend IAQ-friendly tips. It aims to empower custodians and their locals to win long-term improvements in indoor air quality," stresses NEA HIN staffer Jennie Young. "We hope that administrators also read it and get a feel for what custodians must deal with."

Among their challenges:

Insufficient training and respect. McCarty, who's active in the NEA Healthy Schools Caucus, reports that many custodians across the country still lack basic training on "environmental issues and responsibilities [and the] leadership skills needed to stand up and say, 'no, that's not right.'"

McCarty notes that administrators are often slower to listen to a custodian than to a teacher when IAQ problems arise. Yet custodians are the "front line" in any battle for cleaner indoor air, he stresses. "We know where the building problems are. They're either intentionally overlooked or there's not enough time to fix them."

"Custodians see things we teachers don't see, and we see things they don't see," adds Diane Swaim, an eighth-grade social studies teacher in Middletown, New Jersey. "But we don't see our custodians getting the training they need. They're just expected to push a broom, with no wider role in the working environment."

Insufficient employee unity. NEA HIN's Young says custodians are often blamed by staff colleagues for problems they can't control, such as noxious cleaning chemicals they don't get to choose. "All of us work in the same buildings, so it's important for all of us to work together on IAQ issues," says Swaim, who's also president of the Middletown Township Education Association.

MTEA has just organized a Health and Safety Committee, chaired by fifth-grade teacher Debbie Mrkalo, "and I will recommend that we include custodians, even though they're in another union," Swaim adds.

Committee members have been trained to take "walkthroughs" of their own buildings using IAQ "hot spot" checklists. "When those inspections begin, we need to involve custodians," Swaim emphasizes.

Insufficient funding. Budget problems can make life harder yet for custodians, but that's no excuse to surrender the role of IAQ guardian. "Many IAQ tools are not big money items," stresses McCarty, "be they a change in housekeeping practices or better-quality, pleated filters to keep allergens out of the air."

Perhaps the best—and cheapest—tool of all: The fre U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's IAQ Tools for Schools Kit. That kit and NEA's Thank Your Custodian brochure are both available for free. Learn more.

—Dave Winans

More ESP stories in this issue:

• Department of Defense targets teacher, ESP rights
• New Georgia ESP and teacher members forge links
• Arizona local helps paras become "highly qualified"