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Unsung Heroes
Maintenance crew quietly keeps campus safe and up-to-date
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Photo and story by Sam Goldman
Soft wisps of snowflakes cascade from
the sunless sky. As the morning draws closer,
Mike Longden emerges from his basement
“office” and reads the poorly-lit analog clock;
3:30 a.m. He grabs his keys and puts on his
insulated winter boots.
Longden exits the building, stepping on
top of a thick blanket of snow as he unhurriedly
makes his way to the truck. The rugged
old truck whirls on and he lowers the plow.
As the sun rises, Longden unearths more and
more snow, painting a black and white picture
with snow and asphalt. Once the artist
has completed his craft, he parks his truck
and makes his way to the crosswalks to guide
people safely across the roads.
Snow continues to fall as he gazes at his
masterpiece of the neatly-plowed roads, only
to be alarmed by a genuine voice, thanking
him for letting them cross. These nods of
appreciation don’t come often.
“I wouldn’t say that it’s every single day,
but it’s not completely rare,” Longden said.
This is a typical winter morning for the
the maintenance crew, which spends countless
hours tending to the campus. By sacrificing
their early mornings, late night and summer
vacation, the maintenance crew prepares
the school grounds so MPH students can
learn in a comfortable and ever-improving
environment. Yet the crew of six members
receives little to no recognition in the nine
months of the school year. Andrew Park, an
MPH senior, called them the “unsung heroes,”
the “milkmen” of MPH.
“Before anybody is even awake they already
delivered all the milk,” Park said. “They
are modern heroes, man. … I don’t think
they are appreciated enough. We don’t even
know their names. We don’t even know how
many there are.”
In fact, the combined custodial and
maintenance staff will increase in order to
accommodate the rising demands that will
come with maintaining additional buildings
such as the new gym.
The maintenance crew’s typical morning
consists of arriving at 7:00 a.m., though
they often arrive at 3:30 a.m. to deal with the
treacherous Syracuse weather. Once they arrive,
they unlock the doors, coordinate traffic
and the crosswalks and manage daily issues
that the day brings on.
Hundreds of students and parents are
guided through the crosswalk daily.
“There are parents that do talk,” maintenance
staff member Jeff Smith said. “[Sometimes]
we say ‘Hi, have a good weekend,’
and they don’t say anything, they just keep
walking. I feel better about myself because I
know I said what I had to say.”
The soccer field, tennis court and basketball
court aren’t magically set up either.
Hours are spent weekly maintaining MPH’s
athletic facilities. On cold winter nights, some
maintenance crew members stay well past
their regular shift to remove snow, their days
stretching into 12 and 13 hours. Some winter
days that start in the wee hours can stretch
into the evening until the end of basketball
and volleyball games, meaning an occasional
20-hour work day for some.
Once the winter weather has parted,
the job doesn’t let up. In the months outside
of school, the crew spends its time making
improvements on the campus for incoming
students. Over the summer, the maintenance
crew painted the whole school, put in new air
conditioning and windows in Bradlee, along
with more behind-the-scenes work most students
aren’t aware of and is overlooked.
For all the work that the custodial staff
does — both out in the open and behindscenes
— in allowing a smooth start and finish
to each school day, Head of Upper School
John Stegeman put it best.
“They are really the glue,” he said, “that
holds that process together.”
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