North Allegheny custodian receives big honor

PITTSBURGH — The head custodian at North Allegheny Intermediate High School is being recognized for keeping all 200,000 plus square feet of this building clean and much more.

“I’m like the exterminator of germs,” said Mike Heiry.

Heiry loves his job, even with the added responsibilities brought on by the pandemic.

Making sure every inch of this school is free of COVID-19 and other germs at the end of each day sounds overwhelming, that is not what overwhelmed him Tuesday. Hundreds of students and teachers lined the halls and congratulated him for being selected as the Cintas Custodian of the Year.

He competed with other custodians all across the country and won.

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“When they called me and said ‘Mike you have a meeting tomorrow.’ I was like, ‘why?’ I kinda had an inkling but I was still very surprised,” Heiry said.

“He takes a lot of pride in his job. He lives for this. This is like his second home,” said Jane Heiry, Mike’s wife.

“He’ll be here late at night measuring out, when the guidelines changed, he gets out his blueprints and makes sure we are meeting all the guidelines so that our kids can eat and socialize safely,” said Caitlin Ewing, the school’s principal.

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With the help of eight other custodians, they change all the filters in the building once a month. There’s one filter in each classroom, so that’s 100 filters a month. Through this custodian of the year competition, the school also won funds to buy more cleaning equipment and products.

CDC updates guidelines for cleaning surfaces at homes, schools Disinfection is still recommended where there have been suspected or confirmed cases of the coronavirus within the previous 24 hours. (NCD)

Cox Media Group