Behind every clean school in Door and Kewaunee counties, you will find a team of custodians that helped make it happen.
School districts across the state received millions of dollars to help make their buildings a safer place to learn and had to adjust with additional supplies and more advanced cleaning protocols. Some districts have relied on them for other duties such as cafeteria help or bus drivers just to cover some of their other staffing shortages.
Sturgeon Bay School District recently shined the spotlight on its own maintenance team at a recent school board meeting. In addition to the extra cleaning needed because of the pandemic, the crew had to also navigate a summer full of construction projects at all of their buildings. Business manager Jake Holtz says their maintenance team is humble despite all of the extra duties they took on during 20 months of uncertainty.
Over 50 people at the public school districts in Door and Kewaunee counties are tasked with maintenance or custodial duties. There are several others providing the same duties at the area's private schools.
Picture courtesy of Sturgeon Bay School District
Click here to listen to our full interview with Jake Holtz
Below is a list of the custodians/maintenance professionals at the area's public school districts. We apologize if anyone is missing.
Sturgeon Bay: Joseph Anderson, Stacy Cihlar, Robert Kramer, Jerry Reynolds, Cindy Wolter, Caryn Vogel, Amie Schommer, Donald Mallien, Jeffrey Jones, John Suillivan
Sevastopol: Kim Bagnall, Peg Bagnall, Sandy Beauchamp, Gail Wilke, Patty Weber, Dennis Peterson
Gibraltar: Cole Biwer, Zach Higginbotham, Mary Kaye, Rick Kjell, Joe Korn, Mark Tesnow, Eric Warner, Leigh Zielke
Southern Door: Marci Boulanger, Roy Dufek, Chris Ellingson, Russ Kallin, Daniel Londo, Jay Schukow, Phil Simon
Kewaunee: Austin Richard, Eric Tulachka, James Ferron, Rich Kinstetter, Teresa Wessel
Luxemburg-Casco: Gene Dejardin, Don Fameree, Heather Fameree-Whipp, Rochea Karnz, Perry Konop, Lee LeLou, Roy Lindgren, David Tlachac, Jeff Treml
Algoma: Steve Jerabek, Lori Everard, Rene Velchek, Jonathan Novak, Rebecca Nowak
Washington Island: Brennan VerBoomen