When we go to school, we often forget just how much is going on behind the scenes. We see our classes, dismissal, and whatever we’re looking forward to doing afterwards. Many of us walk right by the long stairway leading into the boiler room, or our maintenance team, working hard for us every day. And as Thanksgiving comes and goes, we should all make sure we’re thankful for our staff that keeps us safe, comfortable, and healthy.
Let’s say you’re shadowing our maintenance staff. What would your day look like? Mr. Dent, our building supervisor, comes in between 5:30 and 6 AM, every morning. He’ll check in with our night crew, the people who service the building outside of school hours. Many of them work graveyard shifts, which means they service the building all night while we sleep. He checks in with the night supervisor, ensuring there aren’t any issues.
From there, Mr. Dent and the team refill the water stations. They distribute bins to the security team, so that they can confiscate backpacks that aren’t clear. The team polices the grounds, ensuring safety, before making sure the building is temperature-controlled. Throughout the day, Mr. Dent specifies that there are at least “10 to 15 spills, every day, because of the water and how it’s distributed”.
A typical day for our auditorium manager, Mr. Smith, is a little more specialized. He’ll assist the rest of the team, including tasks that are necessary but past his own job description, all in an effort to ensure the school day runs smoothly. However, his primary domain is the auditorium, where he handles the events, productions, or systems we need during the school year.
This includes helping with picture day, our BSU productions, our theatre crew, and our ERHS coffee houses. These events have an impact that is difficult to understate; nearly all of us benefit in some way from productions like these, and we owe it in part to our maintenance team members, like Mr. Smith.
A day servicing our boiler room is a difficult endeavor. According to Mr. Dent, our system of boilers is running 24/7, on a four pipe system, which means we can run air conditioning and heat at the same time. While beneficial for us throughout the day, Mr. Dent calls it “a heck of a job”. To ensure every teacher and student can learn in a comfortable setting, all with different temperature preferences, it takes a lot to find the balance.
If one room or wing of the building is too cold or too hot, it takes at least a day to bring it down or back up to a reasonable level. One of the boiler engineer’s biggest challenges is exactly that, one he undertakes exceptionally. On top of that, he has to juggle the disrepair in the facilities themselves. The boiler system is old, so old that managing it requires intensive repairs often.
Mr. Dent shares that “in the past year, out of the three boilers, we probably replaced a minimum of 75 tubes”. When these tubes could be burning hot, leaking intense steam or scalding water, even trying to repair the system is a dangerous affair. Thankfully, our team manages in spite of the setbacks.
Mr. Dent shares an anecdote, where a teacher describes that a part of the building is too hot. Our boiler tech moved in, handled the situation, and the next morning the problem was resolved. This is just one example of our hard-working team navigating a rough system to put all of us in the best situation possible.
2025 gives us new hurdles for our maintenance team. PGCPS county notes that “over 40 schools in the county have reported cases of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD)”. It is a viral and highly transmissible disease, one passed through infected saliva and other bodily fluids. One of the best ways to fight the spread is a similar cleaning and disinfection policy to the Covid-19 pandemic, which, luckily, our maintenance team has been doing. We haven’t had a single case at Eleanor Roosevelt, most likely due to our team’s daily disinfection sweep of contact surfaces twice daily, one during the day, and one during the graveyard shift.
Mr. Dent outlines that they do their best to keep up with regulations, explains that “it’s not like a teacher not coming in, so they get a sub. We don’t get any subs. That’s not gonna work. Up until this year, they would give us people to come over and work overtime to assist. So if I was without one or two eight hour person, they would send one four hour person. I will tell you, I was out seven people one day this year, they sent one person to work for four hours. You don’t put a scratch in. So you do the best you can”.
No matter how you might feel about our building, we have to honor the people working tirelessly to keep it above water, throughout whichever situation they might be in.
At the end of our feature, Mr. Dent and Mr. Smith highlighted some names of our security team for doing an outstanding job. This is in no way a comprehensive list, as every member of the team deserves their accolades. However, Mr. Dent names Mr. Gaines, Fred, the nighttime maintenance team, and Ms. Danica Holloman. Mr. Dent applauds Ms. Holloman for her effectiveness as the night supervisor, willingness to follow the rules, and being unafraid to stand on them.
Furthermore, Mr. Dent outlines that not only is he appreciative towards students, but he explains that he is grateful for both staff and security. He outlines that they all work together, that how some teachers clean up their own rooms and security watches over bathrooms, working to take some of the stress off of security. In his words, “We got one heck of an admin and security team, and we all work together. That makes a difference.”
