In the Central Kitsap high school and middle school building a small team of custodians work in the background to keep the school clean and in working order. The two people that students would be most familiar with are Chris Pevovar and CW Mehlenbeck. Pevovar works as the day custodian for the high school and Mehlenbeck as the day custodian for the middle school. 

“My job is to vacuum, trash, [watch the] bathroom, [sanitize] touchpoints, clean up any mess they need me or call me for, basically,” Pevovar said. “[I’ve been working here] 11 and a half permanent years. A few years subbing.” 

The staff that CKHS might not know as well are the night custodians. They get here and start their work at 3:30 PM, and they stay in the school until midnight to make sure that the building is ready for the next day. The night custodial team consists of four people, Maricel Olmo, Emmanuel Oay, Antonio Parina, and Lito Cortez and their team is headed up by Lead Custodian Willer Mangaong. 

“I’m 43 years old,” night custodian Maricel Olmo said. “I have three kids. I’ve been working here as a night custodian [for] maybe seven or eight years. I’m not sure.”

The team at CKHS handles maintenance, grounds, and cleaning duties, which is what sets them apart from janitors, who only handle cleaning duties. Students will often see them cleaning and doing repairs in the hallways, trailing behind after lunches to pick up trash that students don’t throw away. 

“[I] get here at 6 in the morning, usually vacuum everything first,” Pevovar said. “[Next I do the] trash [and the] bathrooms, that takes me about an hour and a half, [maybe] two. Then supervising out here [in the lunchroom and commons]. After my break, I usually do touch points and then babysit at [the] bathrooms all day, basically, I’m there to be on call if anyone needs [anything].”

For the past few years, the custodial team has been short staffed. The people who are left, mainly Pevovar and CW, do their best to keep up with the constant tasks, but with so few staff and so many things to get done, some things have to be pushed off. 

“We never have enough time,” Pevovar said. “We’ve been really behind for the last three years. We just don’t have [the] staff. [There’s] probably six or seven [of us], but we haven’t had a full crew. in about over a year. We have more subs than full crew now.” 

Because their work is in the background, the custodial team and the work they do is often overlooked or dismissed. Many people underestimate how much work they do for CKHS.

“I feel like [the custodians are] the unsung heroes of the school,” Central Kitsap High School teacher, Erik Randall said. “I think that people don’t realize how much they’re really the life of the school.”

A lot of what forces them to push tasks aside is constant student messes. From exploding chocolate milk to wet toilet paper balls on the ceiling, the custodians spend a lot of time cleaning up messes that could be cleaned by students or avoided entirely. Constantly having to sit and watch or re-clean the bathrooms is a task they don’t want to deal with and is something they want students to fix. 

“Clean up after yourselves,” Pevovar said. “When you go to the bathroom, you use the bathroom, you get out. You don’t stay in there the whole time.” 

The night team agrees, echoing a similar sentiment about the student body and what they can do for their part of the cleanup. 

“Student body [can] help us,” Lead Custodian Willer Mangaong said. “Our job goes [better] sometimes, when [they’re] helping us. 

Besides doing cleaning and upkeep, the custodians interact with students and staff often. For one of the custodians those interactions are the most important part of the job. 

“[I love] greeting students at the doors and occasionally handing out mints,” Mehlenbeck said. “[Seeing] the first day of school when all the kids were here and they were actually looking forward to coming back to school to see their friends and everything, [it’s always] very nice.” 

The job has other perks too, mainly a lot of freedom and flexibility in schedule. The nature of their jobs lets them roam around and get things done instead of sticking them behind a desk. 

“You kinda get to be your own boss,” Pevovar said. “Just keep busy, do what needs to be done.”

The nature of the job also means a lot of collaboration. While each one of the night crew people has their own cleaning route that they cover, for larger jobs they work in pairs, calling on each other as needed to get the work done quickly. 

“If I have the main gym which is always used by basketball, volleyball, and wrestling.” night custodian Emmanuel Oay said, “That’s the hard part. But I’m happy that all of us here, we [work as] one. So my partner is Miss Olmo here. When the basketball, any [team is] done, I call her for help because there’s a lot of trash.”

Though the job has a lot of good things, it isn’t always easy. The work is very demanding, and the night crew especially has to spend a lot of time working with harsh chemicals to keep the building clean.

“My job is hard because you need to supply everything, especially your patience, your body, [and] your mind.” Olmo said, “That’s why I’m proud [of] myself. I do it every day.”