GUSTINE – Students traditionally mark the last day of the school year on their calendar, at least figuratively, as they look forward to the relaxed days of summer vacation.

For maintenance and custodial personnel in the Gustine Unified School District, however, the summer is anything but slow-paced and Aug. 18 is the date circled in red.

That’s the day students and staff return to the classroom to start a new school year.....and campuses are going to be as ready as they will get after the all-too-short summer window of opportunity for deep cleaning, painting, repairs and special projects.

Like every other year, there was no shortage of work to be done on GUSD campuses this summer, explained Doug Macy, the district’s director of maintenance and operations.

One of the basics is making sure rooms are sparkling clean to welcome students and staff back.

“The custodians will do all their deep cleaning, from the top of the room down, washing walls, changing light bulbs, washing doors and door knobs. They are getting do all the things they aren’t able to do on a regular basis during the school year,” Macy explained. “They will also extract all the carpets, and wax the floors.”

Rooms will be painted as needed with the help of the maintenance staff, Macy added.

In the past, custodians teamed up to move from one campus to the next, cleaning as a group.

This year, each custodian stayed on-site.

Each knows best what needs to be done at their specific site, Macy remarked, and keeping the custodians on their own campus also helps promote a pride of ownership in the site.

District maintenance workers and groundskeepers have also been on the go this summer.

Major projects have included pouring sidewalks and installing LCD projectors at Romero.

“That was a big project,” Macy said of the Romero work. “Before, we used an outside contractor to install the LCD projectors but that was quite expensive so we took it on in-house. It was a big savings.”

Whenever possible, Macy said, he likes to have district personnel complete jobs that would otherwise be farmed out.

“I always feel that we should do the job if we can, with the time and the right equipment,” Macy explained. “I would rather take the money we would have spent to have somebody else come in and do a job and buy a piece of equipment needed for the project. That we we have the equipment for future jobs. It helps us in the long run.”

Other projects have included refinishing the gym floor at Gustine High, repairing water leaks at the high school, cleaning of all the air conditioning coils and work on the high school locker rooms.

Some projects, like installation of the GMS marquee, may not be complete by opening day. Others, such as work on the lights and scoreboard in the GHS football stadium, can be done during the first few weeks of school.

School grounds have been given extra attention this summer.

“We probably have the football field in the best condition that it has been for quite some time,” Macy pointed out. “We tried to close the stadium down from use as much as we could, and we have putting a lot more water and fertilizer on the field. We spent a lot more time on the field, and it has paid off.”

Safety-related items are always given top priority as the staff goes down its “to-do” list. The projects which affect the greatest number of students are also given high priority.

“There has never been a summer in the 25 years I have worked in maintenance where everything you wanted was done and ready to go,” Macy reflected. “There are always projects that are left behind. You figure out which ones you can do when the students are there, and which ones you can’t.”