Summertime Crews

The end is in sight. Our biggest project of this year is nearing completion. The stripping and re- waxing of a large part of the building. This year we began implementing a new floor care strategy as suggested by our supervisor to strip 20% of the building's hard floor surfaces each year. The means that every five years the floors will always be stripped and waxed. Our 20% this year consisted of the Commons, the front of the kitchen, Main Street, the Student Store and the Marketing classroom, the ASB room, the security office, the choir room, the band practice rooms and the upper gym vestibule. Since the floors had not been stripped in 12 years, it was a monumental task to remove multiple layers of wax. Now that part has been completed. The waxing began yesterday and we plan on having it finished tomorrow just in time for a three-day weekend to allow it to cure.

As the summer progresses, we will continue cleaning rooms, repairing items throughout the building, painting, scrubbing and re-waxing the other 80% of the building, cleaning carpets and cleaning windows. Against popular opinion, our summers are the busiest time of year for us. We have just 50+ days to do all of this work before school starts again. That means having a well-organized schedule and sticking to it. Throw into the mix a myriad other things that pop up amidst our schedule and it throws us into a tizzy trying to keep up. (We just learned that some portables are getting new carpet but we have to move all the furniture next week to prep for this. Not in the schedule as planned, but it is now.)

Somehow we seem to finish most everything by August 15th when activities begin to roll again. I'm never certain how we accomplish this, but our crew working together and working hard is definitely a contributing factor in making it all happen. I love working with our crew. They are hard workers and take pride in their work. We laugh and cry together, but always get the work done.

Summertime is in full swing. So are we. When you return in August, check out what we accomplished and see what you think!