Project DJO: How Maintenance Crews Keep O’Connell Running

Have you ever wondered how O’Connell remains pristine year round? Bishop O’Connell has an entire maintenance staff that is dedicated to upkeep of the school. If it wasn’t for them Bishop O’Connell wouldn’t run as smoothly. The maintenance staff does everything from cleaning the halls to renovating the entire auditorium. 

There are three main roles on the maintenance staff during the school year. The first one is the Housekeeper. Housekeepers will primarily clean the office spaces, restrooms, and the hallways. The second role is the Day-porters and the Sports-porters; the Day-porters are in charge of the cafeteria and the common spaces, while the sports-porters are responsible for the gym and the fields. The last role is the Maintenance Technicians (Techs), who are responsible for fixing anything that is broken. Mr. Campiti’s job is to ensure that everyone knows what they are doing. He handles the finances, planning, and what is needed for each of the jobs such as supplies and workers. He also plans out future maintenance projects for winter, spring, and summer break. 

Aside from the in-house maintenance crew, the staff includes a group of contract workers. The contract staff consists of the Nightly Custodial crew (who clean all of the classrooms), a HVAC Maintenance Specialist who mainly works on the air conditioning and heaters, and a Maintenance Specialist who works with all of the kitchen equipment. 

In the summertime, the maintenance staff has another set of jobs and tasks that they have to complete. They have a Preventative Maintenance crew that does the detailed deep cleaning for all aspects of the buildings. A separate crew does all of the mandatory expectation cycles of elevator, fire equipment, and storm water. In order to get all of these tasks done, they start the day after school ends and continue to the end of summer break. When the summer comes to an end, Mr. Campiti still “wishes for one more week” for the tasks that they do. 

This summer, there were many new painting jobs and painting touch ups done throughout the school. The maintenance staff also renovated the auditorium by installing  brand new rigging, sound, and production lighting systems. These tasks were part of  a two year planning process; creating new designs, fundraising, and coordinating with the drama department and what they wanted to have included. The auditorium took all summer long and they are still finishing up some of the smaller renovations. 

The maintenance staff does more than upgrades and the cleaning for our school; they are doing the hard work to get the school ready for each day and each year.