Lingering Pandemic Leading to School Custodian Shortages

As COVID-19 cases continue to surge, some school districts across the country are having difficulty keeping enough custodians to clean their facilities. The schools in Shawnee Mission School District in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, are among those struggling with custodian shortages at their facilities, Shawnee Mission Post reports.

Rick Atha, deputy superintendent of the school district, said that at least nine custodians have resigned or retired since the beginning of September due to the COVID-19 surges in the county. Additionally, 34 custodians have missed time due to COVID-19 exposure. There are now 18 vacancies for full-time custodian positions in the district. The custodians who remain have been expressing fear of burnout as they now have extra duties cleaning and disinfecting at the schools.

School districts are turning to emergency funding to help them hire the cleaning and maintenance help they need. Earlier this month, the Shawnee Mission Board of Education approved a US$510,000 contract—paid from the $2.6 million federal pandemic relief fund allocated to the district this semester—with Pinnacle Staffing Group. The funds will be used to hire replacement custodians through the rest of the school year to keep up with cleaning and disinfecting protocols.

So far, two custodians have been hired through Pinnacle and began this week, according to the district.

Learn how school districts across the country are handling the additional cleaning and disinfection protocols made necessary by the coronavirus pandemic.