Every morning, Gretchen Farrell wakes up at 4:15 and makes her daily drive to STA. She cleans the Windmoor conference rooms, wipes down the doors and windows and tidies the chapel before ending her time at STA for the day. 

“I work from 6:00 to 9:00 in the mornings, and then I have my own business doing construction cleanings for the rest of the day,” Farrell said. “Sometimes I don’t get home until 6:00 or 7:00 at night, it’s a long day and my cat’s not happy about it.” 

Farrell’s work, as everybody’s, has been affected by COVID-19, 

“Really just the mask part [of the pandemic] has been a big deal,” Farrell said. “It’s hard to maneuver around and work because we’re not sitting in classrooms; we’re up and moving, and it gets hard to breathe.” 

Even though Farrell may spend only a small amount of time on campus, she still loves to interact with the community, 

“[My favorite part is] when you girls are coming in for class, I hold the door open sometimes,” Farrell said. “I usually feed Truman in the morning when he’s here.”

The custodians at STA aren’t one unified body. Many of the workers only come in part-time and balance other jobs, family, and personal time with the often demanding work of cleaning such a large campus. At any given time before or after school, there are some 10 custodians on campus, cleaning the buildings, taking out the trash, and making sure the campus is beautiful for the students and staff every day. 

Carlos and JoJo Palacio are aunt and nephew and work in the Donnelly building once the school day ends. They clean off desks, tidy classrooms, take out the trash and even employ the help of several students working on campus as junior custodians. 

“One of our greatest challenges as custodians is trying to please everybody, make everybody happy,” JoJo said. “That’s really difficult. Because everybody wants things done differently.” 

One of her greatest personal successes has been finding more patience in herself.

“I was very impatient,” JoJo said. “I’m a very impatient person. But recently I’ve kind of learned how to be more patient and understanding and listening.”  

JoJo’s day starts early and with prayer. 

“I get up and do my prayers, because you can’t start the day without God, then I come to work and just do my job,” JoJo said. 

While JoJo works through the day, Carlos finds a way to juggle going to school full-time as a senior at Shawnee Mission East, as well as working a custodial job. 

“I’ve been coming here since I was 14; I was getting paid in stuff like snacks,” Carlos said.

 Carlos’s philosophy of custodial success revolves around the three P’s. 

“We try to do our best having patience,” Carlos said. “Patience, pleasing, and perception. The three P’s.”  

Even after the afternoon crew has finished their work, Operations Manager Gil Mont’s day continues on. Because of his title and accompanying responsibilities, he often has to stay late to help set up or take down decorations, chairs and tables for anything from all-school masses to alumnae celebrations. Not only is he in charge of event setups, but he also manages the custodial staff, including the student helpers who work with him and the other custodians at STA. Mont was the one to begin the STA student custodians program and lists it as one of his biggest personal successes as of late. 

“It’s been great working here for the last 12 years with my student workers who help me with cleaning and set-ups,” Mont said.