Apponequet students clean classrooms, learn life lessons

LAKEVILLE – One of Aiden King’s favorite parts of working as a custodian at Apponequet High School is the sense of gratification he gets from a clean space. 

“I love walking into the building the next morning and thinking, ‘I did this,’” said King, a sophomore at Apponequet High School and one of the school’s custodial interns.

Apponequet’s Custodial Internship Program is a project that provides support to an under-staffed custodial team, and gives students a job opportunity, explained Freetown/Lakeville School District Facilities Director Greg Goodwin, who runs the program and is Director of Facilities for the Freetown/Lakeville School district. 

The program was proposed as a solution during Covid, when full-time staff had an unmanageable workload and it was impossible to find help, said Goodwin, who runs the Custodial Internship Program. 

High School Principal Kahlan Dessert pitched the idea of hiring students part-time as a way to fill the gap. 

Six interns help full-time custodians take care of Apponequet High School, Freetown Lakeville Middle School and George R. Austin Intermediate School during the school year, said Goodwin. 

They start their shifts at 2:30 p.m., after school gets out, and work until 6:15 p.m. During the summer, the program hires more interns to assist with intensive summer cleaning duties. 

The internship is limited to current students, but some have returned as full-time employees post graduation. 

Cody Martin started as an intern in 2022. After receiving his diploma, he came back to work as a full-time staff member. 

“I loved what I was doing and the people I was working with,” Martin said. 

The job taught him about important skills like money management, he said. 

Martin said the experience “turned me into the person I am today.”

Sophomore Hailey Botelho has also taken a lot away from the internship. The experience has given her a sense of appreciation for all of the work that goes on behind the scenes at school, she remarked. 

“I never realized that people stay after school and clean everything up,” she said. “I thought that the teachers just wiped down the desks every day and left.” 

Botelho said she learned proper cleaning and sanitation protocols, and life skills. 

The program strives to teach kids the skills they need to survive in the workforce, explained Goodwin. They go through an interview process, learn to file tax paperwork — and even take a criminal background check.

Freetown/Lakeville Regional School District Lead Custodian Cheryl Tsirogianis, who has become a mentor to the interns, said the job also teaches them how to work independently. 

“There is no one breathing down their necks,” she said. “They are given tasks and they just go.”

Tsirogianis said she took on the role of mentor because she wanted to play a part in teaching students about responsibility in a constructive way.

King said he enjoys the job so much because he gets “treated like an adult.”

“If I worked at McDonald’s, I’d feel like a 15-year-old working at McDonalds,” he said.“Here, I just feel like another employee working with my staff.”

Martin said the job “basically turned me into an adult.” He encouraged his peers to consider custodial work. “Apply,” he said, “Try it.”