Carly Davis

EDAD 633
Case Study #2
Case 30: The Custodian from Hell

Step 1
Summarize the case
The recently built Olympic High School is having some issues between the head
custodian and the assistant principal, me. The custodian has a previous record of
not getting along with the previous assistant principal. Mr. Cush, the head
custodian, does not show up to work on time and does not fulfill all of his daily
duties. The custodian staff under him has complained of his lack of management
skills. We have had many meetings discussing my concerns on his performance
and I have written all of my concerns on paper and given those to him after every
meeting. I have given him suggestions to better his performance and none of my
suggestions are being carried out. On a Wednesday morning, I arrived to school
to have a teacher inform me of some graffiti that might concern me specifically.
After finding Mr. Cush, I asked him to remove the graffiti and he said he was not
working that day, he was going golfing. After a call to the district office, I found he
had not turned in a leave form and did not inform anyone of his choice to be gone
that day.

Step 2
Identify the problem in a single sentence
In this case, the problem is Mr. Cush not wanting to follow any of the district rules
or carry out the duties in his job description.

Step 3
Select specific information from the case and categorize it according to
people, place, or program.
People
1. The school consists of only 9th and 10th graders who live mostly in planned
community housing developments on the northern coast of California.
2. Next school year approximately 1,875 students will be in attendance.
3. The student population is made up of approximately 45% Hispanic
students and the other 55% is Filipino and Caucasian students. The
amount of Caucasian students is declining.
4. The parents of these students pay a special tax to support the parks and
schools. A majority of these parents represent the middle class, but the
students come from a wide range of socioeconomic levels.
5. A custodial staff at Olympic consists of a head custodian and 6 part-time
custodians.
6. Mr. Cush, the head custodian, has not been fulfilling his daily duties,
including showing up to work on time, and being a respectable

leader/manager to the part-time custodians. He chose to go golfing

instead of staying at school and performing his duties outlined for him in
his job description.
7. The part-time custodians have complained of Mr. Cushs inability to
manage them properly.
8. The previous assistant principal and Mr. Cush did not get along well.
9. I, the new assistant principal, am in charge of supervising Mr. Cush. We
have already gotten off on a rocky start.
10. The district office keeps records of who requests for leave and Mr. Cush
did not send in a form for a substitute on the day he chose to go golfing
instead of going to work.
Place
1. Ocean View, California is located on the northern coast of California.
2. The students mostly reside in planned community housing developments
where they pay a special tax for the parks and schools.
3. Olympic High School is the newest high school in the district.
4. Regular meetings take place between Mr. Cush and I, where we discuss
my concerns of his behavior and lack of managerial skills with his crew.
5. School walls are spray painted with graffiti that is targeted towards me.
Program
1. Olympic High School has a state-of-the-art library and media center, a
performing arts facility, and an engineering program.
2. Approximately 20% of the students are on free or reduced lunch and 7%
qualify for Aid to Families with Dependent Children.
3. Some of the funding for Olympic is received for Gifted and Talented
Education and English Language Learners.

Step 4
Review and prioritize the data: Identify the category that contains the most
significant information leading to the problem
1. Mr. Cush, the head custodian, has not been fulfilling his daily duties,
including showing up to work on time, and being a respectable
leader/manager to the part-time custodians. He chose to go golfing
instead of staying at school and performing his duties outlined for him in
his job description.
2. Regular meetings take place between Mr. Cush and I, where we discuss
my concerns of his behavior and lack of managerial skills with his crew.
3. I, the new assistant principal, am in charge of supervising Mr. Cush. We
have already gotten off on a rocky start.
4. School walls are spray painted with graffiti that is targeted towards me.
5. The district office keeps records of who requests for leave and Mr. Cush
did not send in a form for a substitute on the day he chose to go golfing
instead of going to work.

In this case, the People category is the most important aspect. Mr. Cush is
not following his duties written in his job description and needs much
improvement on his managerial skills with the part-time custodians. I have given
him many chances to improve and the situation is only getting worse. He now
has broken district rules on leave days and a decision needs to be made on him
staying or firing him.

Step 5
Refer to the data in step 4 to solve the problem presented in the case and
to respond to the case study questions
1. Mr. Cush is not following any of the rules set by the district and does not
follow any of my requests as his supervisor. My immediate response to his
actions and disrespect is to start the process of firing him. I initially start to
think he is the one who wrote the graffiti but we cannot point fingers until
an investigation occurs.
2. Before I have the graffiti removed I will take a few pictures as evidence for
an investigation. I will then take the initiative to substitute in for Mr. Cush
and take over his manager role. I will call the part-time custodians and get
a few of them to start cleaning up the graffiti while the others perform the
normal morning duties. If we are short on custodians to help with the clean
up I will get right in there and start the clean up as well. The building
principal might need to take over some of my morning duties while I help
with the clean up.
3. There is a legal issue regarding unsatisfactory performance in this case. I
have followed protocol on meeting with Mr. Cush and giving him written
descriptions on what needs to be done. I also gave suggestions on how to
improve and we have not seen any effort towards the improvement. If a
staff member is not following their job description and a plan of
improvement is in place with no improvements happening then the
process of having the employee fired can start to take action. If the
custodian is not fulfilling their duties then the school can be a dangerous
place and can start opening up to the possibility of people suing for their
children getting hurt or sick or just having to come to school with the
possibility of getting hurt or sick.
4. There are a few different legal facts to consider. Some facts are geared
towards Mr. Cush not following his duties and not following the districts
rules on leave time. Some of the legal issues are towards the vandalism
that happened at the school. I will have to be careful on how I handle the
paperwork and action of having Mr. Cush fired. It is extremely difficult to
have a staff member fired but with all the paperwork I have already filled
out and kept track of it will go a little smoother. I will have to meet with the
building principal and the superintendent and the school board to start the
process. Now for the vandalism, we will have to get the police involved
and have them start an investigation to find out who the culprit is. We
should have cameras around the school, which will help us find the person

or persons involved. If Mr. Cush is involved in the graffiti then we will have
another reason to help us build a case on having him fired.
5. When I call the police to report the vandalism I will give them a list of
students and staff I saw at the school at that time. I will also get them a
copy of the camera footage facing that wall. After talking to the district
office and finding out Mr. Cush did not follow protocol on having a leave
day I will find a sub for him, if I cannot find a sub then I will have to
perform his duties myself. Before finding a sub I will call Mr. Cush and
remind him of the protocol we have set on leave days and inform him of
the paperwork I will be filling out. I will file any paperwork that needs to be
done regarding his choice to skip work that day. Any other paperwork that
needs to be filled out regarding his behavior will also be filled out.
6. Mr. Cush violated the leave policy. The did not file the correct paperwork to
have a personal leave day and did not inform anyone of his choice to not
come to school that day. If I had not come to school that early then I would
have found out by others telling me he was not there instead of
incidentally seeing him in the hallway getting his jacket.
7. I have already had conversations with the part-time custodians about Mr.
Cushs performance but it would not hurt to have them fill out an
evaluation form on his performance. It would give me actual paperwork to
put into the file I have started on his performance we have talked about in
our meetings. Not that the evaluations would be relevant but they could
help the board members understand what we have been dealing with all
year.
8. The classified union will try to defend Mr. Cush and help him keep his job.
I believe it will not end well for them because of all the paperwork we have
built up over the past year. Mr. Cush has not helped his situation by
choosing to leave work with no permission.
9. I can already see the evaluation not going very well. With the disrespect I
have gotten thus far, it is only getting worse. I will carry out the evaluation
as I would any of the others. I will show him my evaluation form of his
performance, good and bad, and give suggestions on how to better his
performance. This incident will definitely have am impact on my
evaluation. His performance has not improved and has only gotten worse
so the evaluation form will reflect this.
10. I will give the district office copies of all our notes from our meetings, I will
give them a description of what happened that morning when I asked him
to help clean up the graffiti, and I will let them know how I feel about the
situation. If I tell them everything then it will allow others to help me take
action and I wont be alone in the final decision.
Hanson, K. L. (2009). Case 30: The custodian from hell. A Casebook for school
leaders (pg. 117-119). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.