{"id":1315224,"date":"2019-10-02T18:16:43","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T00:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=988516"},"modified":"2019-10-02T18:16:43","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T00:16:43","slug":"custodian-nancy-chavez-keeps-school-in-order-and-running-smoothly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/custodian-nancy-chavez-keeps-school-in-order-and-running-smoothly\/","title":{"rendered":"Custodian Nancy Chavez keeps school in order and running smoothly"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nancy Chavez, custodian at Graham Mesa Elementary sets up lunch tables in the cafeteria at the Rifle Elementary.<\/strong>
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In the early morning hours, as kids are just waking for their school day, a team of quiet champions is already at work preparing school buildings for days filled with learning. When the students and staff leave for the day, the evening shift comes in and gets things ready to do it all over again. Oct. 2 was National Custodian Day, but custodial crews in school districts \u2013 and buildings across the country \u2013 keep things running smoothly at all hours.<\/p>\n

Nancy Chavez has been a day shift custodian at Graham Mesa Elementary for three years. She began full time, after working with Garfield Re-2 School District as a substitute custodian.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like my job \u2013 no, I love it,\u201d she said.\u201dI wanted to try something different. I worked in hospitals before, and I thought it would be great to work with kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chavez starts at GME at 5:30 a.m., making sure the building is warm, welcoming and safe for her students and her staff. Chavez is part of a team of 40 custodians in the Garfield Re-2 School District \u2013 a team Chavez says plays a very important role.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my job is like a hero job,\u201d she explained. \u201cI am everywhere trying to help the teachers and the kids. I love to shovel snow in the mornings. I check the doors and I am responsible for keeping the school clean. I don\u2019t want to get anyone sick. It is my part to keep kids healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best part of the day for Chavez, however, is the kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the kids. Oh my goodness, they make my day,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes the kids come in and are sad in the morning. They say they didn\u2019t sleep well the night before, or they had something happen at home. When I see them in the morning, I say, \u2018come, let\u2019s get some breakfast,\u2019 and we talk. It is so cool that they trust me and talk to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cI learn something new from our kids every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brenda Doty is the Garfield Re-2 custodian supervisor.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur custodians go above and beyond every day to make sure our students and staff are in a safe and clean place so they can learn,\u201d said Doty. \u201cThey are the eyes and ears of the building. One of our team members even went dumpster diving for a young lady who was in tears because she had accidentally tossed her retainer out with her lunch tray. They found it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Chavez says she hopes to stay in her current position for a long time and adds she is always looking for opportunities to add to her skills to help her school and the people in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to get better and push myself so I can help them more,\u201d she explained. \u201cI was thinking about getting my CPR certification so that when the kids are eating if someone is choking, I can help them.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nancy Chavez, custodian at Graham Mesa Elementary sets up lunch tables in the cafeteria at the Rifle Elementary. In the early morning hours, as kids are just waking for their school day, a team of quiet champions is already at work preparing school buildings for days filled with learning. When the students and staff leave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 21:07:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}