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Custodial, grounds staff report understaffing as Goose Creek CISD faces large facility workload
Summary
District operations staff told trustees the custodial and grounds divisions manage 42 campuses and large district acreage with reduced staffing levels; presenters quantified staff counts, common work orders, and indicated preventative maintenance and severe weather response are ongoing priorities.
Goose Creek CISD custodial and grounds leaders presented an operations update to the Board of Trustees on Oct. 6, describing staffing levels, service responsibilities and common maintenance demands across 42 campuses.
Angela Putten, director of custodial and grounds, said the custodial department currently has 178 custodians and the grounds department has 37 staff members. "We are responsible for taking care of 42 campuses and facilities, and over 4.4 million square feet of area that must be cleaned," Putten said during her presentation, noting the departments also maintain more than 1,000 acres of district property and support athletics and events.
Presenters walked trustees through common work‑order drivers: moving requests, vehicle repairs/maintenance, pest control and carpet or mold remediation. Staff said moving requests and vehicle maintenance generate a high share of work orders and noted the departments have very small crews dedicated to those tasks (for example, two full‑time movers and two mechanics were cited as the primary staff handling certain large volumes of work orders).
Operations staff compared department sizes with prior staffing levels reported earlier in the year: custodial headcount previously showed 234 and had declined to 178, and grounds staff had earlier been 53 and are now 37, while facility square footage and acreage have increased. Presenters referenced APPA (Association of Physical Plant Administrators) benchmarks for cleaning coverage (for example, recommended ranges for custodians by building type) and said many campuses exceed the recommended square‑footage per custodian.
Board members asked about using student interns for summer tasks and heavy moves; Putten said the district has an intern program with Lee College for HVAC work and uses some students in warehouse roles but large campus moves during the summer were contracted to an outside moving company this year. Trustees thanked the custodial and grounds teams and acknowledged the departments’ role in daily operations and campus presentation.
The report was informational; no board action was requested.
