'You never know when you’re going to get that call': Custodian staffers spend the night at NYC schools to make sure they open after storms
Before any storm hits New York City, Philip Navetta, a custodian engineer at the K450 Grand Street campus, has a routine.
Because after 25 years of working in the school system, he knows that preparation is the key to getting through any storm – like the nor’easter that hit this week or Hurricane Ida which hit last month – and being able to open school on time.
So he puts his team to work checking sump pumps, roof drains, exterior drains, scaffolding and anything else that could be at risk for causing an issue once the storm hits.
His staff’s hours are staggered to have more coverage around the clock.
And then, he waits.
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“School opens no matter what so we have to be there to make sure schools can open for the kids,” he said.
While New York City has been under a flash flood watch this week, the city’s mayor Bill de Blasio praised the Department of Education’s custodial staff in a press briefing on Tuesday, as the NYC-centric ‘Gothamist’ website pointed out.
“Our custodial staff stayed overnight to make sure there were no problems,” he said. “Thankfully, all those schools open fully without any difficulty today.”
But for staff members across the system's 250 schools like Navetta, it’s just standard procedure.
“Our fantastic facilities staff are on the front line every day making sure our City’s young people have safe, secure places to learn, including overnight if needed,” NYC Department of Education spokesperson Nathaniel Styer said in a statement to Paste BN. “Before every extreme weather event they prepare buildings, monitor the impact of the storm, and if there is any damage, put in incredible work to quickly get buildings back online and ready to fully serve students.”
Desiree Watson, who is a senior building custodian at the New York Department of Education’s headquarters at the Tweed Courthouse, is on high alert when storms hit. She’ll spend the night doing her rounds around the building, instead of sleeping in her own bed at home.
So when the nor’easter hit this week, she had a little bit of coffee and settled in for the night.
“Just doing my rounds around the building,” she said when asked what her night looked like. “I didn’t have any major issues but I had a couple of issues I had to address.”
Like Navetta, she relies on getting as prepared as possible - not only around the building but with personal supplies.
“I have a whole closet full of clothes here,” she said of the building headquarters. “You have to because you never know when you’re going to get that call to spend the night.”
Watson has worked for the Department of Education since applying for a job as a city custodial assistant in 2009 and has worked to keep the building safe during storms through major events including Hurricane Sandy, which crippled the city in 2012. During that storm, she stayed overnight for a week.
During the nor’easter this week, Watson’s concentration was on keeping the water out.
“I monitor leaks because we have these buildings, they’re so old, I think they were built with drainage systems on the floors in the basement,” she said (the building was constructed in 1881).
While this storm wasn’t as bad as expected, during Hurricane Ida, she opened one of the fire doors only to have water gush right in.
“We were busy and didn’t realize that the drain was clogged with the leaves and when I opened the door, the water came crashing at me,” she said. “So that was fairly intense. My guys ran and we assessed the issue and took care of it.”
Navetta, the custodian engineer, agreed the nor’easter luckily had nothing on what Hurricane Ida caused last month.
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The night Ida hit, he was at home when someone from his staff called to tell him that there was some water coming into the building. He jumped into his car and it took nearly two hours for him and many members of his team to get to the school because of the flooding.
“Thank god everybody came in and pitched in and we rose to catch up really quick with it and get it all out,” he said.
“Ready for school in the morning.”