Maintenance workers busy over school break

A pause between semesters gave Northwest Arkansas school custodians and maintenance crews enough time to make repairs and do some heavy-duty cleaning.

The rain that started shortly after Christmas leaked through the roof at Bayyari Elementary School in east Springdale, leaving a puddle at the front of the building. The water left a white stain on the terrazzo floor.

“We’ve got to go ahead and scrub it until it doesn’t show,” said Leonel Gomez, a custodian for the Springdale School District who used a machine to do the job Wednesday.

Gomez planned to apply a new layer of wax after he finished scrubbing.

Empty schools allowed a staff of 207 custodians to wax floors and to clean carpets, said Jeremy White, Springdale School District director of maintenance.

“Anytime we get a break, we get to do all the halls and high foot-traffic areas,” he said.

Another 65 maintenance workers devoted time during the holiday break to heating and air-conditioning units, electrical units and plumbing, White said.

In Fayetteville, the list of tasks for the break included cleaning hard floors and carpets, building and installing cabinets and desks for the transportation department, cleaning up school grounds, and staining cabinets and painting at Owl Creek School, said David Tate, director of school plant services.

Mechanical crews changed out heating and air-conditioning filters, redid duct work and installed water fountains designed to fill water bottles.

The recent rain caused few problems in Fayetteville schools, Tate said. Standing water was seen outside buildings and some small limbs were blown from trees, he said.

No major damage was reported on Bentonville campuses, spokesman Paul Stolt said. Maintenance crews worked Monday through Wednesday on a variety of general work orders. Crews also inspected heating and air-conditioning systems and gathered supplies in preparation for the colder months.

In Springdale, a pipe in the heating system at Hunt Elementary burst the day before school let out for the two-week break, White said. Crews repaired the leak so the building could be heated. Crews also installed new carpet in several classrooms.

At Bayyari, another crew from Scott Parker Installations took out cabinets in a former computer room near the library so it could be used as an art room, said Richard Cox, who was patching carpet where built-in computer desks had been.

James Burkett, who works for Springdale School District maintenance, painted the walls in the room.