Even as students are relaxing with their families or sleeping warmly in their beds, many members of Seminole High School’s staff remain at the school—doing the work necessary to prepare the school for the eventual arrival of its students. Because the school system itself is closed, many of the school employees remain at home just as the students, but some work through the break.

Students, however, are often unaware of the fact that maintenance and construction are done while they celebrate the holidays. Indeed, they tend to believe that the school is empty from December 22 to the end of winter break – January 8. Freshman Edesha Hall believed that during the break, “[The school] gets cleaned and [the staff] fix stuff that’s broken. The teachers probably come back to set up for the new semester.” This, however, is not entirely true — teachers and most other academic staff usually get the whole break off (although many plan lessons and prepare for the new semester). Non-academic employees, however, come in to work the halls for a variety of reasons.

According to Principal Mr. Mike Gaudreau, “All 12 month employees are here for a few days during the break. They clean and do the work that needs to be done to start the new semester. We do pressure washing, painting, and some classroom work that we can’t do while students are here.” Indeed, during the construction era in Seminole’s history, a large amount of work was done on the buildings during winter break.

Custodian Ms. Tony Levant works at the school full time and said that during the break, “[the custodial staff] wax the floors, we clean windows, dusts the vents, and other things.” These actions make the school a more livable place, but are hardly noticed by students, who are accustomed to a clean, beautiful campus. Because of the actions of these dedicated staff members, students can look forward to coming back to the campus they are used to. While the school is closed for most of winter break, the work of Seminole County Public School employees never ends.