As seen in the Lewisboro Ledger, N.Y. 

How many custodians does it take to clean six schools and a total of 658,960 square feet of floor space? Katonah-Lewisboro Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Roelle’s proposed budget calls for 44 custodians, one fewer than last year, for a total equivalent of 41.5 full-time positions. Six of these are supervisory positions — one head custodian at each school — responsible for managing the custodians under them.

But the school board has asked the superintendent to attempt to reduce that number even further. Board member Michael Gordon pointed out industry standards, codified by the Association of School Business Officials, recommended that the average load on a custodian should be about 2,500 square feet per staff hour, or about 20,000 square feet per position, assuming that a full-time custodian works eight-hour days. A 2002 state comptroller’s report found that the average workload at 15 school districts in New York was around 19,000 square feet per full-time position, while a survey published in American School and University magazine found that custodians at schools in New York and New Jersey are responsible for about 20,800 square feet each.

The district maintains about 15,900 square feet per position, or 18,500 square feet per position if the head custodians aren’t counted in the total. Using the recommended workload, the district would have about 33 custodians. “We constantly compare ourselves to other districts in almost everything we do,” said board member Peter Treyz. “Why not here?”

District Director of Operations and Maintenance Tom Psomas said part of the reason was that the district is not an average district, and that there are a large number of outside and after-school events that require cleaning compared to some other schools. In addition to the board’s request that the administration try to cut some custodians, included in the budget is $30,000 for an efficiency audit of the operations and maintenance department, which includes the custodial staff. The audit would look at ways the department could more efficiently use the resources it has and save money. The budget for the department makes up about 7%, or about $8 million, of the proposed overall district budget. Although Dr. Roelle said he initially tried to reduce the budget for the department by 10% next year, he ultimately was only able to keep its increase to about 1%, including the removal of one custodial position and one maintenance position.