Mess. Mayhem. De- struction. These are just a few words to describe how messy Martin is at any giv- en time. Whether it’s class- rooms, bathrooms, hall- ways or after lunch. In early 2021, the Martin custodial crew was ful- ly staffed, but since then, the number has dwindled down to three, with two who work in the morning and one who comes in the afternoon. “We are short of custodi- ans,” Assistant Head Cus- todian Elizabeth Bagnnete said. “Before we had like 23 to 25 custodians to clean the whole building. There are not many custodians due to the pay and they don’t pay us enough for the hard work we do, and I work 40 hours a week plus overtime.” Custodian pay, which is set by the district, starts at $18.54 an hour and tops out at $26.68 per hour. Cleaning a school as big as Martin is a huge respon- sibility and a lot of work for only a few custodians during the school day. “It takes around two hours for me to clean the cafeteria by myself and 25 classrooms,” Begnnate said. “Bathrooms take around seven to eight hours with breaks and lunch.” Freshmen and sopho- mores stay on campus due to new security protocols now during lunch, leaving the cafeteria, hallways, and classrooms more messy than they have been in pre- vious years. “The reason I usually stay on campus during lunch is it is difficult to leave cam- pus with all the new secu- rity protocols and rules,” senior Mia Stowe said. “When I stay during lunch I eat in the teacher’s class- room.” Even with plenty of stu- dents eating in rooms, the halls are still littered with trash, making it seem as if everyone ate in the halls. “After lunch is the most messy to clean up, especial- ly the cafeteria with food on the ground, and food left on tables,” Bagnnate said. Bagnnate said that some- thing the students could do to help after lunch is throw their lunch tray away, put trash in the trash can to avoid it being left all over the ground or table, as well as not piling trash up in trash cans. Another part of the school that tends to get unusable without any help from stu- dents are the bathrooms. “The restroom is the worst part of the school to clean with students throwing paper towels in the toilets, not flushing toilets, and just leaving the restroom a mess,” Bagnnate said. To help the custodians after lunch, the National Honor Society has started a program called MC2, which stands for Martin Clean-up Crew, where NHS seniors who have fourth or tenth periods off can earn hours by cleaning up the halls after lunch. “Martin is such a big school where we cater to a lot of people, and I feel like lunch is such a rough time, especially with the new security procedures which make a lot of students stay on campus now,” senior NHS Project Lead Michele Duong said. “Since the cus- todial staff has to clean up the students’ mess, it be- comes so much more work for them since they have to clean the classrooms and bathrooms, so cleaning up the hallways could help re- lieve their workload.”