School Work: DCPS employees use summer to ready 18 buildings for new year
Jun. 29—While students are out for their summer break, work is moving fast at their schools prepping them for the upcoming school year.
David Shutt, Daviess County Public Schools director of facilities, is in charge of ensuring that all of the repairing, cleaning and replacing will be done before Aug. 10 — the first day students return from summer vacation.
And to help him meet that deadline, DCPS has on staff carpenters, plumbers, four master electricians, three master heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technicians and other trained maintenance workers.
"All of our workers really do put kids first," Shutt said. "...If an air conditioner is not working for that classroom, there's no delay in getting it fixed."
Shutt added that they have custodians who work year-round and some who are only there during the school year. Combined there are 98 custodians employed by DCPS.
"We're very fortunate to have a group of skilled people working here," said Shutt who's been with DCPS for six years. "It's an embarrassment of riches in the amount of talent that we have here."
There are 18 facilities — 12 elementary, three middle and three high schools — that run from 65,000 square feet to more than 200,000 square feet.
Shutt said DCPS employs two full-time painters who will go year-round.
"They'll finish one school and go right to the next school," he said. "They'll paint in the afternoon shifts during the school year; so they never stop," Shutt said.
Shutt said the major projects that happen during the summer are usually what can't be done while students are filling the halls and classrooms.
Although each school is cleaned daily when in session, Shutt said the summer is when the custodians can really get into spaces that are more difficult with students there.
"They do deep cleaning in the summer; they'll pull all the desks and furniture out of a room and clean it from the ceiling on down," Shutt said.
Two of the summer employees — DJ Baker and Bill Duncan — were busy last week sanding and finishing a gym floor at Country Heights Elementary School.
During the school year, both work in different capacities for DCPS — Baker a bus driver and Duncan, a one-on-one instructional assistant.
Baker and Duncan said they could take off the summers but would rather be helping the district prepare for the next school year.
"It seems like that summer is long but it's not," Duncan said. "You got basically eight weeks; it's a lot of stuff to get done."
And for Baker, he appreciates how everyone works together to get the jobs done in time.
"I think we're happy doing it; we work with a good team that helps us and supports us," said Baker who's finished multiple gym floors over the summer.
Duncan said the reward for him is seeing the final product such as a gym floor when it's ready for play again.
"When you get done, you're tired and hot but you look back and think, 'huh, that looks pretty good ... it's a sparkling, shining finish. The kids are going to like that.' " Duncan said.
And depending on need, DCPS will hire college-aged workers for extra summer help.
For example, Shutt said Burns Middle School is undergoing a major flooring overhaul that required extra hands for moving furniture around.
"We've moved every stick of furniture that will fit into its commons area and we've had to put some in the gym," he said. "So as work goes on and we start setting the school back up, our summer workers are instrumental in that because that's a lot of hard work on them."
Along with its facilities, the upkeep of the outside grounds is also done in-house.
"We mow right at 230 acres of grass a week," he said. "...They'll also go and clean out drainage basins and weed eat along ditches. "It's some of that unsung work that goes a long way in making our campuses presentable."
"There's something going on at the schools all the time, and I'm always amazed at the amount of work a few people can get done," he said.
Don Wilkins, dwilkins@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7299
