New Westminster school staff, parents push for daytime custodians

New Westminster parents and school staff want full-time custodians in schools during the day.

The push for daytime custodians was a key part of budget presentations made by staff and parents at the School District 40 board meeting.

School trustees heard from the district’s two unions – the New Westminster Teachers’ Union and CUPE Local 409, which represents support staff – and the district parent advisory council (DPAC) with their suggestions for 2022/23 budget priorities.

Dave Bollen, president of CUPE Local 409, said the presence of daytime custodians is one of the most important issues for his union – especially in light of COVID-19.

“During a time of need, the custodians were there,” he told trustees.

The union’s budget submission to the board says the lack of regular daytime custodial service may have been seen as having a “limited impact” on school operations in the time prior to the pandemic.

“Our experiences over the past 16 months prove this perception incorrect, and that cleaning, handwashing and other connected services and strategies are the very things that keep our schools, kids, staff, families, and community safe,” it says. “We now know, and can prove, that these simple tasks performed by daytime custodial staff stop community spread of disease and protect our most vulnerable citizens from pathogens circulated in schools and unknowingly taken home at the end of day.”

CUPE’s pitch found support from the New Westminster Teachers’ Union.

“It is not good use of an administrator’s time, nor should it be their job to have to clean up student vomit or clean a washroom because of the lack of a custodian,” said a submission from NWTU president Sarah Wethered. “Day custodians provide another set of eyes and ears in a building and help us keep our schools safe and clean on a daily basis.”

DPAC chair Kathleen Carlsen added her voice to the call. She told trustees having custodians on staff for their currently scheduled 3 to 11 p.m. shift isn’t sufficient to keep schools clean during the day.

SD40 added six part-time daytime custodians for COVID-19

School District 40 currently has six part-time daytime custodians in schools to focus on “high-touch points” – a move it instituted in the spring of 2021, when it dedicated $90,000 to the task, and then agreed to extend in the fall, when it set aside another $170,000.

As it now stands, those positions are in place until June 30 this year.

Trustee Mary Lalji suggested the board should request a report from staff detailing the cost savings involved in having regular custodial shifts in the afternoon and evening hours rather than during the school day to assess whether any financial savings offset the need for daytime custodians.

Her motion to that effect didn’t find a seconder, however.

Board chair Gurveen Dhaliwal told Lalji trustees have been engaged in budget work for the past month, including consultations with stakeholder groups and in-service sessions with staff, and that those channels are the appropriate place to raise budget suggestions.

The New Westminster school district has had full-time daytime custodians in the past; up until 2016, there were custodians working in schools from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Nine custodial positions were shifted to afternoon hours in September 2016.

Then-superintendent Pat Duncan said at the time that the move to after-school custodial hours was not a cost-saving measure.

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