Manatee School District works to address cafeteria, custodial staff shortages

For the past 14 years, Barbara O’Brien has been serving breakfast and lunch to students at Braden River High School.

By 6 a.m. on school days, O’Brien and the other food service employees at Braden River High are hard at work preparing breakfast for students. 

“I love the children,” O’Brien said. “It’s so nice to see them. I like to think I’m making a difference with them.”

Due to staff shortages in the School District of Manatee County’s food and nutrition services department, food service employees have had to take on extra hours to make up for the 90 vacancies the district had as of May 4. The district currently has 55 managers and 255 food and nutrition services employees. 

The School District of Manatee County hosted a job fair May 4 in hopes of hiring more food service workers and custodians. 

Regina Thoma, the director of food and nutrition services for the district said the district has been facing a staff shortage for at least the past four years, and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the issue. 

Donna Peregoff, the assistant director of human resources, said possible reasons for the staff shortage could be Manatee County being a retirement community as well as having the lack of affordable housing throughout the county and the difficulty in having competitive salaries.

“We do have good benefits,” Peregoff said of the district. “For a lot of people, working in education is kind of a calling, so finding that person who’s driven to give back to the community and support our students gives us a smaller demographic to work with.”

Thoma said even if the district could hire 50 employees of the 90 needed in the food and services department, it would put the district in a “decent place” to better serve schools.

The district’s custodial staff also faces a staff shortage. 

Rusty Moore, a custodial supervisor for the district, said the shortage impacts the custodial staff’s ability to clean every classroom and other areas in a school each night. 

As of May 4, the district is short 42 positions on its custodial to reach its full staff of 240 employees.

Moore said the district has five substitute custodians, and each is working every day because of the shortage. 

Moore said the number of custodial positions is based on square footage. A custodian is needed for every 25,500 square feet, which Moore said is high for a custodian ratio. If a school is supposed to have three custodians but only has two, it causes the two custodians to prioritize what they can get to from when they start their shift at 2:30 p.m. and finish at 11 p.m.

“We end up doing things that are required by statute, which is taking out the trash and cleaning the bathrooms,” Moore said. “Unfortunately, that leaves things like maybe sometimes vacuuming or dusting or things like that not done. They have to be prioritized.”

Moore said it’s critical to students’ learning that the district has enough custodial staff to properly clean and maintain the school.

Moore said if students walk on campus to see weeds and trash on the grounds or walk into a classroom to see dust and the trash wasn’t taken out, it can affect students’ attitude toward the school.

“That attitude is what affects their learning,” Moore said. “It’s actually critical we have enough help to get in there and get those rooms at least minimally cleaned, the desks lined back up, the floors mopped, stuff like that. You can also get into things like dust causing kids to have breathing issues.”

Custodians have been even more crucial to the health and safety of students and staff since the pandemic began and students returned to school in August of 2020. 

“The thing people miss when you’re talking about COVID is the custodians never left the buildings,” Moore said. “(When someone tested positive at school) our custodians were the ones that went into that room to disinfect and clean that room. There’s many times I myself have gone in with coveralls, face shields, goggles and masks and went in with electrostatic sprayers and sprayed disinfectant throughout the schools.”

Moore has spent more than 20 years with the district. He spent 15 years in food and nutrition services employee and then seven years as an employee of the custodial staff.

“I've always enjoyed the fact that what I do, and what we do, helps kids learn, and it provides a future for the kids,” he said. “Everything is for the kids. It’s hard work, but it’s fulfilling work.”

Back in the cafeteria, Thoma said employees are willing to work extra hours and have helped with streamlining service to make meal service easier on the staff. For example, there are more grab-and-go options that don’t require a food service employee to serve to students. 

Thoma and Moore said employees in the district office have chipped in when the district didn’t have enough food and nutrition service or custodial employees to cover its 50 schools. 

In an effort to provide more competitive pay, Thoma and Moore said the district is working toward increasing the starting salary for food service workers and custodial workers to $15 an hour. 

Thoma and Moore said working for the school district provides benefits such as having a flexible schedule, having summers off and working with children. 

“It’s a great place to work for parents because they’re off most of the school days,” Thoma said. “If they want to work 10 months, they can work 10 months and be off in the summer. There’s also other positions that are 12 months, so the flexibility of schedule is great.”

In food service for the district, employees also don’t have to worry about working nights and weekends unlike in the restaurant industry. 

Seth Gwalthey, a cafeteria manager and floater, worked in the restaurant industry for 10 years before starting with the School District of Manatee County in November. A floater is a manager that goes to whichever school is in need of a cafeteria manager. 

“You couldn’t pay me to go back (to the restaurant industry),” Gwalthey said. “What’s not to love about working in a school? The benefits are great. The hours are great. The students and parents are grateful for what we do. The district provides support from the top down.”