School maintenance takes no summer break: The staffers behind every fresh start

On a recent Friday morning, Andrew Urbanetti pulls a sheet pan of sizzling chicken thighs out of an industrial oven inside a Dorchester test kitchen owned by the Boston school district. The chef has marinated each thigh in one of three blends of taco seasoning.

As the tray cools down on a counter, a spicy aroma fills the air.

Urbanetti, assistant director of culinary programs for Boston Public Schools, and Alexis Assad, the culinary manager for the district, take small bites out of each chicken thigh. A small taste test competition has begun.

"I get a little pepper on the back end," said Urbanetti. "There’s a slight latent heat, but in a good way."

The food services professionals aren't digging into chicken before noon simply to rank spice mixes. They're in search of the best seasoning that meets the district's evolving health standards by mostly ditching the salt.

And with Boston students heading back to classes — and cafeterias — in less than a month, the chefs want to find a spice mix students will agree is an upgrade. Boston serves roughly 50,000 meals a day across 119 schools every year.

Spice blend number one gets a nod of approval, but it's a little too salty. Version two is less salty but "nothing special." Option three, however, brings the heat.

"Wow, that's really tasty," Assad said. "I can tell that uses dried peppers in it: chipotle and ancho peppers."

"It's a great flavor profile," Urbanetti agreed. They decide it likely isn't too spicy for the kids.

Taste tests like these are an important part of Urbanetti's job each summer, as he and his team work to refine and develop new recipes to serve Boston's roughly 45,700 students. In addition to testing out new low-salt spice blends, the staff also works to add more cafeteria meals that honor students' diverse cultural backgrounds.

Pastelón, a Puerto Rican dish made with plantains, cheese and ground meat, will return in the fall — with some tweaks recommended by students last year. For students with specific dietary restriction, like some Muslims or Jewish pupils, the district also recently put more halal and kosher dishes on lunch menus.

"We want to make sure that they're being seen and heard and appreciated through the food on their plate," Urbanetti said.

Summer break is a time of reset, for both students and many school staffers across Massachusetts. However, like Urbanetti and his culinary team, there are many school professionals, like custodians and bus mechanics, working behind the scenes to prepare for the new year.

Inside the Worcester Public Schools' bus repair garage, Jim Hicks inspects a student transport van as it's hoisted over his head by an electronic car lift.

The school bus mechanic is checking that the van's safety components are all working smoothly. From start to finish, this quality check will take about two hours. More than 12,000 students in Worcester rely on school buses.

"You're going from front bumper to the rear bumper, and from the top of the roof and all the way down to the floor," said Hicks, who's been repairing buses for 30 years.

Hicks and a team of three other mechanics say the summer is the best time to tackle critical bus safety checks. There are fewer drivers coming around with routine repair requests, like oil changes.

Even new school buses and vans can come from the manufacturer with defects, and the team cherishes uninterrupted hours to inspect them closely. One time, a relatively new yellow school bus came to his garage without its brake pads.

"You never know," Hicks said.

Hicks works under one very important motto: "If you’re not willing to put your own child on the bus, don’t put the bus on the road."

Finally, what would a new school year be without sparkling clean floors and surfaces? Cleaning out last spring's dirt and grime is Tom Lowe's main task over the summer. 

"We're washing all the furniture, washing the walls, and the floors in every classroom," said Lowe, the senior building custodian at Witchcraft Heights Elementary School in Salem.

On recent visit, Lowe and two fellow custodial staffers explained that they start by buffing and waxing classroom floors until they're so shiny you can see your reflection.

"I kind of feel like a superhero."

Tom Lowe, school custodial staffer

Next, they scrub the bathroom floors. Lowe douses them with clean soapy water and then operates an industrial machine that swirls hard plastic bristles around the tiles.

As the scrubber whirrs along, the mop water quickly becomes dark and grimy.

It takes a few more rounds of this to really make the bathroom floors shine — and for the grout between tiles to return to their original color. But for Lowe, that’s OK.

Watching the transformation is relaxing, and Lowe says there's an even bigger payoff in September.

"My favorite part is the first day of school," Lowe said. "Teachers all come back and see everything all bright and shiny. And they’re happy to be back in the building. It just makes me feel good."

Lowe, on one hand, said he enjoys the summer season. The empty school buildings give him a chance to finish repair projects that are hard to schedule when students and teachers are around, like servicing the heating and air conditioning system.

Still, Lowe feels happiest during the school year, when teachers and students greet him with smiles on their faces and show appreciation for his hard work.

"I kind of feel like a superhero," he said.