Maintenance & Operations

  • Keeping everything running smoothly.

Maintenance

Carpenters

  • Maintain cabinets, doors, windows, walls, flooring, ceilings, furniture, equipment, and exterior building systems. 
  • Their team includes a glazier, locksmith, floor layer, furniture repair specialist, cabinet maker, and nine Journeyman carpenters. 

Electricians

  • Maintain and repair all power distribution, lighting, clock and bell systems, intercoms, scoreboards, fire alarms, security systems, network wiring, and emergency backup systems. 
  • Are first responders from the Maintenance department during power outages and fire alarms to keep students and staff safe. 

Energy Management Systems

  • Control all the energy management systems that turn on and off our building heating and cooling systems, along with programming lights for evening events. Their programming of these systems to run only when a building is occupied has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy usage over the past decade.
  • Optimize heating and cooling usage depending on weather conditions by fine-tuning all of our systems throughout the year.

Mechanics/Support Operators

  • Move and transfer equipment and furniture. 
  • Their team includes a welder in charge of all steel fabrication; a millwright to maintain kitchen equipment, Career and Technical Education shops, and gymnasium and playground equipment; one mechanic to repair and maintain our vehicle fleet; and one mechanic to maintain our small engine equipment, which includes all the lawn mowing equipment.

Painters

  • Continually repaint classrooms, hallways, and public spaces, and do touchup painting on all newer schools. 
  • Refinish gym floors, playground lines, and parking lot painting, and provide all the signage throughout the district. 

Plumbers

  • Maintain and repair all plumbing fixtures, including kitchen equipment, domestic water supply, irrigation, drainage systems, and sewer systems.
  • Ensure our water is safe to drink and our fields are green. 

Steamfitters

  • Maintain and repair a wide array of equipment, ranging in age from the early 1900s through today's high tech and high efficiency systems.
  • Maintain and repair all heating and cooling distribution systems throughout the district to provide comfortable teaching and learning spaces for our staff and students. 

Operations

Head Custodians

  • Start at 5:30 a.m. to oversee all aspects of custodial and site needs and respond to and support staff, students, and patrons.  
  • Clean their assigned workload. 
  • Setup, monitor and clean up breakfast and lunch program. 
  • Order supplies. 
  • Submit work orders for repairs. 
  • Program and monitor entry door access schedules, as well as all district and non-district events in the building, working with Event Services to schedule and do setup and cleanup. 
  • Do snow removal and ice control during the winter, and remove trash from grounds, rake, remove leaves, and weed shrubs and flower beds during warmer months.

Day Assistants

  • Start at 5:30 a.m. at high schools and middle schools. 
  • Clean their assigned indoor workload.
  • Remove trash from the site grounds.
  • Empty outside trash receptacles.
  • Clean sidewalks.
  • Rake and remove leaves. 
  • Assist head custodian with all related lunch duties.

Swing Shift Night Foreman and First Assistants

  • Work evenings starting at 2 p.m. 
  • Clean their assigned workload.
  • Monitor the events schedule and do setup and cleanup. 
  • Respond to staff and night group requests. 
  • Monitor building security and perform full security checks throughout their shift.

Swing Shift Sweepers

  • Work evenings starting at 2:30 p.m. at high schools, and 3 p.m. at middle schools.
  • Clean their assigned workload.
  • Assist with staff requests, night time activities, and security checks throughout their shift.

Itinerants

  • Assigned to various shifts as needed to replace employees who are on leave.
  • Prepare gym floors for refinishing, deep clean sites staffed year-round, and move custodial equipment to all sites.

Filter Crew

  • Replace the filters at all sites on a rotational schedule.

Grounds

Grounds Department Foreman

  • Organizes the workflow of both full-time staff and seasonal staff.
  • Establishes and institutes mowing schedules during the summer months, trimming of shrubs and tree pruning, hazardous tree assessment, and regular maintenance on all landscaped areas throughout the district. 
  • Oversees Integrated Pest Management policy that includes: monitoring and record keeping of all herbicide and pesticide applications and emergency response actions to resolve matters associated with unwanted pesticides and insecticides within our schools. 
  • Helps maintain all high school and middle school athletic fields.

Groundskeepers and Gardeners

  • Are certified herbicide and pesticide applicators licensed through the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
  • Apply herbicides and insecticides to school grounds, following very specific application methods to protect the health and safety of our students, staff, and the public. 
  • Care for school grounds through weed trimming, fertilizing, pruning, and mowing. 
  • Clean up leaves and other debris, prune trees and bushes, and assist with snow removal throughout our schools. 
  • Works closely with athletic departments in preparation for fall and spring sports, including line marking, infield preparation, and coordinating the mowing schedules.
mechanic working

  • Contacts

    Executive Director, School Support Services
    Becky Doughty
    509.354.7771

    Main Line
    509.354.7172

    Maintenance Supervisor
    Kevin Grimm
    509.354.7143

    Custodial Operations Director
    Jeff McCartney
    509.354.7168

    Address:
    2815 E. Garland Ave. 99207