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It takes 1,335 building service employees to keep Montgomery County's nearly 200 schools fit and trim. The work is tedious, dirty, smelly, and can be the first line of defense in cases of lice outbreaks and MRSA.

And it's a year-round operation. So as work wrapped up to ready schools for the first day of classes on Tuesday — and the nearly 138,000 germ-ridden, mess-making students — we take a brief look into the lives of school janitors.

Last year alone, custodial services went through 17,500 gallons of floor wax, cleaned 139,000 desks, refinished 140 gym floors, tended 3,000 acres of grass and maintained the 6,500 classrooms.

Six days to spruce

By the time this school year officially began, Bill Hicks, building services manager at Wheaton High School, was practically in mid-year form.

For the first time in his 19 years at Wheaton, there was daytime summer school, with more than 1,300 students occupying nearly every classroom until the program ended Aug. 8.

That gave Hicks, who has worked for MCPS for 46 years, just six days to spruce up the school before teachers arrived Aug. 19.

So he and his staff of 16 worked overtime Aug. 9 and 10 to clean the classrooms, wax the floors and fix one group of students' mess so another could tear it all down in a couple weeks.

"At first, it's nice to see the kids come in that first day," said Hicks, a burly, imposing figure, despite his soft Virginia drawl. "But those freshmen come in rough. The other kids, they have been here before, but the freshmen are out to prove something."

Hicks, who often walks to the Dalewood Drive campus from his nearby home, arrives each day at 4:50 a.m. to seize control of the building he knows so well. He said he has never taken a vacation longer than two days because he is fearful of the work that would await his return.

Despite the early start to the back-to-school season, he knows the bulk of the work will come after the students arrive, mainly because a teenager's behavior is one of the few things Hicks can't predict after all these years.

"You used to be able to tell kids to stop messing around," Hicks said. "Now, they'll turn around and tell you what to do."

Tools of the trade

The floors of Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School in Wheaton are spotless—not a skid mark or glop of dust in the entire building.

But by the end of the first day of classes yesterday, all of Andrew Williams' hard work as building manager could have been erased by throngs of middle school students and whatever messes they made.

"One of 'em could have their new ‘Kmart specials' shoes and skid on the floor," said Williams, 54. "Or spill a Coke. Or have an accident."

In fact, Williams, who works the night shift, has had his share of cleaning up "accidents" — in the bathroom or elsewhere — in his 15 years at the school.

"You just gotta put your gloves on, get your mop and clean it up," he said as if pep-talking himself.

It's one of his many duties. In the days before the first bell rang, he also plucked gum from under tables, dusted blinds, washed windows and moved any heavy file cabinet a teacher might need.

But, he said, cleaning's what he knows how to do.

"The broom, the dust mop, the buffing machine — I got it all trained," he brags.

And although it may get tedious sometimes, Williams prides himself on his mantra.

"You just have to enjoy what you're doing," he said.

‘No easy task'

In her socks, Myrtle Beach T-shirt and shorts, Jacqueline "Jackie" Rossie, 46, building service manager at Brookhaven Elementary School, looked relaxed for someone who was in charge of getting a school ready to open.

Taking a break before waxing the last few sections of floor in the Aspen Hill school two weeks ago, Rossie said her staff's work began months ago — "as soon as the kids walk out the door" and start their summer vacations.

The tasks are endless: washing walls, cleaning carpets, rearranging furniture, stripping and waxing floors, mowing and weeding; the list goes on.

"It really is hard work. Especially with having summer school just end Aug. 1 and making sure everyone's on top of everything and getting the school to where it should be. It takes a lot of time and a lot of hard work from myself and my staff."

Still, she said, she loves her job and is devoted to ensuring students and staff return to a clean building.

"I love my job working at Brookhaven," Rossie said. "Principal [Rob] Grundy is really a great guy to work for. And I have a great staff that's always on top of everything."

The feeling is mutual.

"The staff thinks the world of her," Grundy said. "She takes a great deal of pride in the schools."

This will be Rossie's seventh year as Brookhaven's building service manager; she has been with the school system for 16 years. She served as assistant building service manager at Fairland before moving to Brookhaven and began as a building service employee at Highland View Elementary,

"I think people would be surprised to know how long it takes to get a school ready from start to end," Rossie said. "It's no easy task."