KENOSHA, Wis. — Two Kenosha Unified School District Custodians are working on a big surprise for students and staff at Jefferey Elementary over the summer.
Rachel Dickey, a second shift custodian at the school, went to head custodian JT Mecozzi last year with a concern.
"We had three buses that would show up in the morning and during the winter months, there was really no safe place for the kids to get on and off," JT said.
Rachel explained that the grass in the bus unloading zone causes "slippery conditions, whether it was during the winter or a bad rain. It was just a safety concern."
So they decided to do something about it. Together they brainstormed an idea to replace the grass with concrete where the buses pull up to drop off students in front of the school.
They first asked the school and district to see if there was any money in the budget. But since money is tight for many school districts, they then thought about fundraising. Ultimately, they used the construction happening at the school over the summer to their advantage.
"We saw a lot of scrap metal lying around," JT said. "Found it out it was going to be tossed, so we had a light bulb moment and said let's try scrapping the metal. We were surprised what we got for that load."
They then went to the city on their own time to fill out the forms and get approval from the city council to make the change.
All of it was done over the summer with very few people in the district and at the school knowing about the project.
"It really doesn't necessarily make their job any easier because now they're going to have more snow to clear and salting and edging," said KUSD Custodial Supervisor Crissie Escobedo. "It really is just for the kids and it shows just how much they care and they're really really involved in wanting to make the school a better place."
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