“Good Will Hunting” SJECCD style:

Custodians’ Stories Shatter Negative Stereotypes

By Fabio Gonzalez & Rosalie Ledesma (edited by Barbara Hanfling)

Imagine working 2 jobs for over 14 hours a day, returning home at 1 am for a brief respite and dinner, and then retiring to sleep, but only for 4-5 hours because you need to be at your next job by 8 am. This has been the life of Antemio Preciado, a custodian at San José City College for the past 19 years.

In 1998, Antemio came across a torn piece of paper in a garbage can that would not only lift his spirits and hope, but also the hope of other custodians in our District and beyond, for all we know. The letter described a program designed to assist custodians and their family members to prepare for and enter Santa Clara University (SCU) as undergraduate students—tuition free!

For Antemio, hope emerged when Chancellor Rosa Pérez came to the District in 2005 and met with custodians in her first semester. He pulled out the letter he found in the trash almost 9 years prior and thought about how to frame his ideas. He wrote to the Chancellor explaining that he had worked for the college for 16 years and yet he did not even know how to turn on a computer. He asked if the Custodian Project could be replicated at SJECCD for the purpose of advancing the skills of himself and his co-workers.

The Custodian Project

In July, 2009, 30 custodians and 12 Custodian Team members held a joint meeting to ascertain, from the custodians’ point-of-view, what they envisioned for the Project. Three key areas emerged from the meeting: English/communication skills, Email/computer skills and information about how to access resources to attend college. And thus, the SJECCD Custodian Project was “born.”

The Custodian Project acts as a broker between the custodians and our District’s vision of opportunity, equity and social justice. Opportunity provides them with a spot at the educational “table.” For custodians, social justice is evoked when we collectively stand up for and with them to challenge oppressive actions and help advance the trajectory of their full potential.

Since the first team meeting in July, email workshops have been conducted to assist custodians with communicating online, a taken-for-granted task for many of us. With only one old computer for the custodians at each college, the District ITSS team swung into action and scheduled computer stations to be set up in a month at EVC and SJCC. Shortly, a customized English language class will be designed for the custodians to improve English skills. The classes will take place before they begin their regular work schedule.

Success stories of our custodians include: Ernesto Bermudez, a 13-year employee and former custodian at EVC is now an ITSS network technician. Carmen Vasquez was a custodian at EVC for 10 years who is now an Admissions and Records assistant at SJCC. Mario Quinones was an EVC custodian and now works at SJCC as a maintenance technician.

Many of our faculty are involved in this Custodian project including, Fabio Gonzales, Martha Hardin, Elaine Ortiz Kristich, Josie Gutierrez and Marjorie Clark. Keep up the good work and let us know how we can continue to participate in this great endeavor.