2011 Top Recipient: Georgia’s Barry Crocker

The 2011 Top Award Recipient is Barry Crocker, a custodian at Nicholson Elementary School in Marietta, Ga. Crocker, who has been at the school for 20 years, is known as the school’s in-house safety expert. His cleaning practices are so effective that he’s been called on by the Cobb County School District to assist and retrain custodians in other schools.

To help keep infectious illness to a minimum, Crocker, his staff, and the students he’s trained as lunchroom monitors clean lunch tables, wipe the seats, and sweep the floor every time a class leaves the school lunch room so that it’s spotless and ready for the next class.

“The C.L.E.A.N. Award continues to place a spotlight on the importance of cleaning for health first and appearance second,” said Crocker. “Custodial professionals need to continue to lead the cleaning-for-health movement.” Read more about Barry Crocker.

North Carolina, Colorado, Alabama, Michigan Custodians Also Honored

2011 C.L.E.A.N. Award recipients (from left) Jerry Newberry (NEA), Steve Verburg, Carol Stubbs, Virginia Wilson, Barry Crocker, Chris Gregory, Nancy Bock (ACI). Click photo to enlarge.

Custodians from across the United States were honored as C.L.E.A.N. Award runners-up for their professional efforts in keeping their schools clean.

Fayetteville, N.C.: Carol Stubbs has been the head custodian at Anne Chesnutt Year-Round Middle School in Fayetteville since 2003 and in the profession for more than 17 years.

Stubbs and her team work tirelessly to minimize germs at Anne Chesnutt by equipping every room with hand sanitizers, diligently cleaning doorknobs and other high-touch surfaces, encouraging everyone to wash their hands regularly, and making cleaning supplies available to classrooms.

“I realize that we, the custodial staff, are on the front line of defense in stopping germs from spreading in the building,” she says. During Stubbs’ time at the middle school, the number of student sick days has dropped, the rate of recycling has climbed, and parents and teachers continually remark on how clean and orderly the school is. Read more about Carol Stubbs.

Portage, Mich.: In the hallways of Central Elementary School, groups of students wielding sticks with tennis balls attached to the ends make their way across the floor. They're not playing an improvised game of floor hockey. They're part of head custodian Steve Verburg's “Scruff Patrol”, teams of students who rub away black scruff marks left behind by sneakers and boots on the floors.

All the students look up to Verburg and work hard to earn the privilege to help him keep the school clean. Under his supervision, they sweep, mop, vacuum, clean up the busy lunch room, and rake leaves on the school grounds.

A custodian for 23 years in Portage, Verburg makes health and safety a priority: he’s installed hand sanitizers in every room throughout the building and placed carpet runners in the hallways and entrances so students and staff won’t slip on wet floors on rainy or snowy days. Read more about Steve Verburg.

Orange Beach, Ala.: Virginia Wilson, custodian at Orange Beach Elementary School, is not only responsible for maintaining the elementary school building, but she also cleans the school’s three-year-old science and nature center, Sea, Sand, & Stars, where Gulf marine life is the main attraction. With so many people and sea creatures using the facility, maintaining a healthy, hygienic environment tops Wilson’s list of priorities.

Her first order of business is addressing hand hygiene. Disinfecting soap, hand sanitizers, and tissues are well distributed throughout the marine life laboratory, and she wipes down each of the 18 door handles daily. The science center also houses a planetarium and a computer technology room with 30 stations. Virginia works to make sure head rests and headphones are continually protected from bacteria and unwanted pests, like lice. Read more about Virginia Wilson.

Durango, Colo.: Diane Lashinsky, the principal of Durango High School, expresses enormous pride in the school’s custodial staff. “We have the most involved group of custodians I’ve ever encountered. Each of these dedicated staff members has an unmatched work ethic, going above and beyond the customary custodial job duties on a daily basis,” said Lashinsky.

The custodial team of Rich Warfield, Greg Butler, Rick Duran, and Chris Gregory has more than 44 years of experience combined. They clean for the health of the entire school community. In fact, their healthy cleaning practices are so effective that during the H1N1 threat of 2009, a local news station reported on health standards and the custodial staff’s work to combat the flu.

The team uses disinfectant cloths to clean cafeteria tables, they change ceiling tiles and fix moisture problems to prevent mold, and they clean air filters regularly to prevent poor indoor environmental quality and fire hazards. Safety, they say, is their No. 1 priority at the school. Read more about the team from Durango High School.