Lincoln’s custodial staff has been so short-staffed this year that on some days they only have five custodians instead of their usual 14. Head custodian Roger Hastings says this problem isn’t new. 

Jill Ross, Lincoln’s business manager, says custodians have struggled with short staffing for as long as she’s worked at Lincoln. This is because Portland Public Schools (PPS) doesn’t have substitutes for custodians. High school custodians often have to fill in for absent custodians at neighboring elementary and middle schools. Hastings says the logic is that high schools are bigger, so they have more custodians. The reality is that high schools don’t have custodians to spare.

Hastings is frustrated by the uncertainty caused by understaffing. 

“It’s a little hard to do a routine when it changes every night,” says Hastings. “We’re constantly having to adjust because so and so is over here, or so and so is out sick, or he’s on vacation this week.”

Ross is aware of this problem, but says she is powerless to fix it.

“If [Roger] and I were in charge of the world, we would have so many substitutes and we would be totally fine,” says Ross.

Ross thinks this problem does have a solution. 

“The state needs to fund education better,” says Ross. “The state needs to fund a quality education model.”

According to the Oregon State Legislature, a quality education model determines the estimated amount of resources and cost to run highly effective schools.

Although Lincoln students can’t fix this problem, Hastings says they can make a difference in custodian’s jobs. 

Every day at lunch, students leave greasy pizza boxes and paper plates with food left on them in the recycling. This forces Hastings and the custodians to throw out the whole recycling can, because sorting it is not part of their job. This has been a problem for years, and it’s Hasting’s pet peeve.

“The efforts of many [to recycle] are being spoiled by a few,” says Hastings.