Quarrels with Custodians

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BaronVB74
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Quarrels with Custodians

Post by BaronVB74 » Tue Jan 19, 2010 11:59 am

I want my guard girls to be able to practice in the MPR at our school, but the custodians won't allow the girls because their weapons could chip and damage the floor. What argument could I give to persuade the custodians in letting them use the room. We have a floor, and we aren't even using sabres. Any ideas?

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Re: Quarrels with Custodians

Post by mfisk » Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:08 pm

Don't talk to the custodians. Talk to the admin, and explain that in order to compete in a gym at a competition your weapons get inspected. So them the rules about how protected it really is. If they still don't allow it, every parent makes phones calls until it is resolved. Keep your eyes open to see what else is being used in the MPR and if they are "really" taking care of it.
Michael Fisk
Instrumental Music Director
Tustin High School

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supermutant
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Re: Quarrels with Custodians

Post by supermutant » Wed Jan 20, 2010 6:59 am

Every time that we schedule a fund raising "spaghetti feed" or such on campus, our custodians get a free meal. We invest some time into just talking with our custodians and make sure that they are included as part of our "team". There is no condecension in that last statement, because our custodians know that we cannot perform at our levels without their help. Sounds kinda cheesy, but it seems to work. Good luck :)

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Miss A
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Re: Quarrels with Custodians

Post by Miss A » Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:44 am

The best piece of advice I ever received from Scott Pierson (SJSU) was to always make friends with the secretaries and custodial staff. Their job is an important one, and if you make them feel needed, they will go the extra mile for you. And a small gift certificate to Bev Mo’ at the end of the year doesn’t hurt either. :yeah:
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Re: Quarrels with Custodians

Post by Mark Stone » Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:17 pm

Miss A wrote:The best piece of advice I ever received from Scott Pierson (SJSU) was to always make friends with the secretaries and custodial staff. Their job is an important one, and if you make them feel needed, they will go the extra mile for you. And a small gift certificate to Bev Mo’ at the end of the year doesn’t hurt either. :yeah:
Remember, it's the custodian and secretaries that run the school, not administrators (just don't tell the admin this).
Mark Stone, Ayala High School

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Re: Quarrels with Custodians

Post by ErinF » Wed Jan 20, 2010 4:07 pm

We have this same issue and rarely get gym time. We do get one small room (which is barely big enough for my girls to stretch in) and thats it.

As far as i know, custodians dont have authority to say who can use the facility. You need to talk to the principle or a school board member. Right now we're back to trying to fight for a couple hours of gym time. Our argument has always been that color guard is part of the school and as such we have a right to the buildings on campus. And also because its a public school its funded by the people (ultimately the parents of these girls who need the gym) so the students should have a right to use the buildings.

We've also said in the past that we wont toss when practicing our show and we always use our floor to protect the building. Thats the best we can do.

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Re: Quarrels with Custodians

Post by JenKozy » Wed Jan 20, 2010 4:19 pm

Play nice with the head custodians. It will get you far. Trust me. We rehearse in our cafe. It's not big enough for our floor, but we can make due with what we have. (Side note, the floor is basically like a dance room floor which makes dancing really nice. Hard woods. No stone tile)

As for gym time, every single school I know of has the same problems. We play nice with our AD and the custodians, and get into the gym when they have slots. Usually Saturdays. With six basketball teams and two boys volleyball teams, we take what we can get.

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Re: Quarrels with Custodians

Post by oreocookis » Thu Jan 21, 2010 9:21 pm

What others have said. You have to be as nice with the custodians as possible. When our head custodian first came a few years ago he was always having problems with us, or didnt understand why we would still be there( marching band until 5pm or later) But once he understood what we do, and when we needed to do it he is always helpful. The truth is the custodians are alot like the music teachers in that they get a ton of crap thrown at them for no explanation, especially from the district and I think in that way we relate, and help each other as much as possible. I talk to all the custodians and after concerts we help them clean up... Last year we had a new girl as a custodian and one day before marching band I was talking to her and we both have similar personalities, and we are the same age, now we are friends and have even gone on a bike ride with each other.. shes in charge of cleaning our new multi-use room and so we work out things so she can do her job and we can do ours.
The thing that sucks is even though we sign up for the multi-use room in advanced other people either never look at the book to see whose in there, or we get kicked out last minute.. which sucks and is really annoying since we go out of our way to make sure we have use of it,but we still have a rotunda for space when we get kicked out. Anyways do your best to be friendly with them and things will be much easier!
Jennie M
American Eagles Marching Band Woodwind, Colorguard and Winter Guard Instructor
Fremont Unified After- school Elementary Band Teacher

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