Grant High School students Owen Crabtree, Ezra Rapaport and Grant Lamberton have a new appreciation for work. They spent the summer working eight hours a day, five days a week, under the guidance of head custodian Nick Branch. They cleared out classrooms, scrubbed the halls and dumped more garbage than they ever thought existed. The result? A shiny building for the first day of school.

Owen Crabtree, 17, senior

“I’m never going to draw on a desk again.”

Nick Branch

“I look at it from a teaching aspect. I wanted to try to teach these guys a life skill called work. At first I was wondering how well they’d do at their own school, but it worked out well. They see now how the school gets treated.”

Ezra Rapaport, 16, junior

“Working with Nick was a lot of fun. He really knows what he’s doing. The janitors do a lot of work, especially during the summer time when they have to clean everything out. There was a lot to be done, but it was definitely worth it.”

Grant Lamberton, 17, senior

“It can be really dangerous. I walked into a Dumpster. I’ve had doors open in my face, file cabinets fall on my feet and the other day a clock fell off the wall for no reason. But I’ve learned a lot about the school, and I’ve gotten to meet really great people. There’s a lot of stuff people don’t realize janitors have to do.”