The union representing support staff in the New Westminster school district is pushing for another daytime custodian at NWSS.
CUPE Local 409 wants the board to add another daytime custodian at New Westminster Secondary School, according to a budget submission in the agenda for the April 25 board meeting.
Dave Bollen, CUPE 409 president, pointed out the school has 2,300 students and more than 100 staff.
At the meeting, he told trustees that the school needs an extra custodian to keep up with the workload — both for the regular demands of the job and the extra incidents that have happened at the high school.
"Recently there has been fires, floods, vandalism at a level that we haven't seen at NWSS for over 20 years," he said. "This support is absolutely needed, considering the staff that's doing it now are running around all day constantly and not able to get done what needs to be done in the first place to maintain our high standards."
Bollen said the district also needs more casual staff to ensure replacements for custodians who are away.
The union’s message found support from the New Westminster district parent advisory council (DPAC), which is also calling for increased FTE hours for custodians.
DPAC chair Laura Kwong noted that, as school capacity has increased, the demands on custodial time have grown. She said parent and student feedback has been that custodians don't have enough time to clean classrooms — and she noted some reports of "bodily fluids" being left for hours in classrooms because no custodian was available.
Catch budget presentations at the SD40 board meeting April 25
The New Westminster DPAC, CUPE Local 409, the New Westminster Teachers’ Union and the Principals and Vice-Principals Association all gave budget presentations to the board at the Tuesday night meeting, covering a wide range of priorities and requests including staffing, technology and student safety.
Background reports, agenda and meeting information can be found at the SD40 website.
📢 SOUND OFF: Do you think schools need more custodians? What would you like to see the school board prioritize for its 2023/24 budget? How can it best meet the needs of New Westminster students? If you're a student, parent or staff member with ideas to share, send us a letter.
