There are 1,852 students currently attending West High School. That number greatly exceeds the number of custodial staff that are currently working that the school. Due to all the students, the school needs to be well kept. As a result of the school district budget cuts that happened last year, most of West’s custodial staff were laid-off. That brings up the question, why there should be more custodians working at West. Assuming that the school was cleaned more often it could host more events. Studies have shown that the school environment can affect student achievement either positively or negatively.

Moreover, the physical environment of school buildings and school grounds is a key factor in the overall health and safety of students, staff, and visitors. School buildings and grounds must be designed and maintained to be free of health and safety hazards, and to promote learning. If the students are worried about on how dirty the school is, then they won’t pay attention in the classroom. Senior Mitchell Elia had a few words to say about this topic. “Well I do see random pen marks on the lockers when I walk past them in the halls, it’s amazing the time it takes for the custodians to clean up it, but it’s also the students fault,” he said.

Furthermore, having more custodians in school while classes are in session may help the school.  Right after breakfast students are sluggish and have the tendency to leave their trash all over the cafeteria and in the hallways. So while the students are in class the custodians can clean up. By doing this, when it’s passing period students don’t have to worry stepping on someone’s food from breakfast. Also during lunch students can go anywhere in or outside the building with their lunch. The majority of students eat lunch at school; those students leave the cafeteria in a bad state.

George Vang, another Senior at West, said, “I eat at school and when I’m done throw my trash out, but I see students just leave their trash on the table and on the floor.” The cafeteria can’t hold all the students going in, so they usually just walk in the halls and eat. By doing that they students could put trash anywhere in the building.

Even before entering West, visitors could see the garbage outside on the sidewalk, street, and grass. Christopher Bernoski, teacher at West said, “ Yes I do see litter outside but it’s little compare to inside.” Too much waste around the building can change the opinion of people when they first enter West. Due to the weather conditions it’s understandable why the custodian’s have a hard time picking up each and every single piece of waste they see. Also around the relos there is a substantial amount of waste, mostly it can be seen behind the relos. Walking straight to a relo a person may not see, but looking at it from behind a person can easily spot all the trash with no difficulty. People usually don’t pay mind to all the trash they see outside the school because they don’t need to pick it up.

All in all, custodians are doing a decent job on keep the school clean and safe. Scott Kniefel a teacher at West said, “I rate the condition of the hallways a 7/10, not necessarily because of the custodians, but mainly when the students start to enter the building.” Also when there is a spill of any type of liquid in the halls it only take moments until a custodian is on the scene.