Custodians sit on chairs and couches around the big desk in the custodians’ office, which is located right next to the Auto Shop at Palo Alto High School. They make jokes, laugh, watch videos on their phones and have conversations in Filipino. While they take care of the school from dawn to dusk — and beyond — they also have jovial personalities that most students never get to know.
One of Paly’s custodians, Bernard Pineda, grew up in the Philippines, moved to the U.S. in 2014 and started working at Paly a few years ago.
“For me, America is not only an opportunity, Pineda said. “It’s possibility.”
In the Philippines, he didn’t own a car or any property. He said that although he loved living in the country — “The lifestyle is nice and beautiful,” Pineda said — but he found that in the U.S., his hard work paid off, and he could have more of the things he wanted.
Pineda moved to the U.S. for a better life and opportunities for both work and his children.
“I work hard,” he said. “Now I have my car [and] I have a little bit of property.”
As a parent, Pineda said, he is strict in helping set his daughters up for the future.
“What I want for them is to learn martial arts,” he said. “Sooner or later, because we’re Filipino, we’re native, so maybe we’ll get bullied. So that’s why I enrolled them in martial arts, so one day they can … protect themselves.”
This is one of many personal stories that students don’t know about the people who keep our school running. Some Paly students aren’t considerate of the cleaning and organization that custodians do. Noel Barrosa has been working as a custodian since 2011 after previous jobs which included being a bartender, a busboy and an Uber driver. Barrosa doesn’t have anything that he wishes Paly students knew about him.
“I don’t want to be recognized or famous,” Barrosa said. “I am what I am. I don’t want anything, just be kind, be humble, that’s it.”
Paly custodians spend most of their time cleaning up the bathrooms, with their constant messes and vandalism.
“The biggest thing that all custodians want [is for] the students to respect the bathrooms,” Barrosa said. “I wish that students here behaved the same as back in the Philippines.”
Barrosa never worked as a custodian in the Philippines but knows from personal experience how different the behavior is. Barrosa said he remembers the way students respected public places in the Philippines. Occasionally there would be a mishap in the bathroom, but when removed, there wouldn’t be any vandalism afterward. In contrast, if something is removed from the Paly walls, the next day there will be something in its place.
“I’ve been a student before,” he said. “That’s how I know. If I go to the bathroom, it’s clean. No problem at all.”
Rowel Gregorio, a Paly custodian since 2009, said that cleaning the graffiti in bathrooms is one of his biggest challenges at work. Gregorio agrees that he would like Paly students to keep bathrooms cleaner.
“Be cleaner,” he said.
