CHARLOTTE, N.C. — School districts in the Charlotte area are well into the new school year and are still looking for new teachers, support staff, and operational staff.
While they compete with wages, worker shortages, and other obstacles there’s one thing they can’t avoid: Retirements.
WCNC Charlotte spoke with one upcoming retiree who’s spent 26 years at one Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools high school.
Every morning like clockwork, Bruce Jones -- or as the kids call him, Mr. Bruce -- gets up at 4 a.m. He’s at the front doors of Butler High School to prepare for hundreds of students.
“Unlock the doors, check the grounds I go around the whole campus,” Jones said. “I run around the whole campus, make sure no vandalism has occurred.”
For more than two decades he’s kept the halls clean, the fountains shiny and windows glistening.
He’s one of the hundreds of custodians around CMS schools who help keep more than 21 million square feet of the district clean.
“I don't want to be in a nasty building," Jones said. "I know they don't want to be in the nasty building. You know, and if they see something they're going to let me know."
Since the pandemic, Pew Research says the number of retirees has accelerated. In the third quarter of 2021, 50.3% of U.S. adults 55 and older were out of the labor force due to retirement.
Retirees leave with decades of institutional information with them.
Jones went to the school system after his previous job shut down in the late 1990s.
“I had a friend and she said, 'Let's go to this school system,'” Jones said. “'You know, they always hiring people at the school system.'”
That friend retired last year, according to Jones.
“Custodians are the backbone of our commitment to providing a healthy and safe environment for students and staff,” CMS Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh said at a school board meeting. “They were on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic sanitizing our spaces assisting educators so that teaching and learning could continue.”
Hattabaugh was celebrating National Custodian Day celebrated on Oct. 2.
After years of lobbying the general assembly and local lawmakers for additional funds, the CMS school district pays all its employees a minimum of $15 an hour this year.
This includes positions like Jones’ and hundreds of other supporting, non-instructional and operational positions.
While WCNC Charlotte talked to Jones, students couldn’t help but stop and congratulate him on retiring next year.
In a few months, Jones has no more 4 a.m. wake-up calls. He also won’t wake up to Butler staff or students.
“I will miss both of them,” Jones said.
It goes without saying they’ll miss him too.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.