“I hold myself to very high standards when it comes to my professional responsibilities at Centerville Elementary and treat it like it is my home. By keeping my standards high, I hope to have Centerville looking as good in 20 years as it does today.” Kathy Osborne

Lead custodian of a school built just five years ago may sound like an easy job. But the school has 87,175 square feet to clean, and with 900 children, it’s the largest elementary school in Frederick County, Maryland.

Kathleen Osborne has proudly served as lead custodian of Centerville Elementary School in Frederick, Maryland, since before it officially opened in 2005. She watched the school’s construction, and she’s made it her business to know as much as possible about every system in and around the building. Before joining Centerville, she was a custodian at Urbana High School for five years.

Kathy and her custodial staff of four, clean the desks every night. All teachers are provided with sanitizing wipes, and the use of special dust cloths has helped contain allergens. These improvements have resulted in fewer illnesses and lower absenteeism.

Her “Golden Dust Pan Award” encourages teachers and students to keep classrooms clean. They are responsible for their own space, including desks and the floor beneath them. The “Golden Dust Pan” is hung outside the classroom that has remained the cleanest for the week. At the end of the school year, the classroom with the highest number of awards receives an ice cream treat, while the teacher is presented with a dozen roses.

Kathy started a recycling program that focuses on collecting all paper, bottles, and cans in the classrooms and milk cartons in the cafeteria. When the school district implemented a system-wide recycling program, Centerville Elementary was ahead of the curve, having already met most of the requirements. 

“As a kindergarten teacher, my students have frequent mishaps that only the imagination can perceive. No matter how unpleasant, Ms. Osborne is there promptly and with a smile to keep our environment conducive for learning.”

Bibi Dabney, Kindergarten Team Leader,

Centerville Elementary

In addition to recycling, Kathy encourages energy conservation. She asked the art class to develop signs reading “Flip the Switch” that are posted by every light switch. But she didn’t stop there. Other electricity-saving efforts include friendly emails to teachers about the energy costs of leaving computer monitors, copiers and printers on over-night. Kathy is now the school’s official energy conservation representative and has helped other schools implement recycling programs and other conservation efforts.

Children’s safety is another focus and major concern of Kathy’s, so she had a yellow line painted along the front sidewalk to give students a safe zone while waiting for the car-rider traffic to come to a stop.

Three times she has received “The First Class” award presented by the school district to those employees who consistently go above and beyond their normal duties.

Steve Raff, principal of Centerville Elementary, has great praise for Kathy’s contributions, noting, “Kathy is highly regarded by all of the learning community at Centerville. She is dedicated, thoughtful and appreciated as a staff member that does whatever it takes to support the needs of our students.”

The environment seems to be the main drive behind Kathy’s energy. Kathy’s passion for cleaning for health, recycling, and energy conservation impacts both the indoor and outdoor environment but it also helps improve the most important environment of all, the learning environment.