LACCD Trustee Walks a Day in Our Shoes

“I ate my Wheaties and I’m ready to go,” exclaimed Miguel Santiago, Los Angeles Community College District Trustee, when he arrived at Charles Ruffin’s house at 2:15 AM one recent morning. Miguel spent the day working alongside Charles and his colleagues, custodians at Los Angeles Trade Technical College.

The crew’s assignment that day was to strip and mop a floor. “Miguel got right down there with us and jumped right in. He did very, very well today,” said Charles.

“These are hardworking people who care about the job that they do. I learned that they’re more than just employees,” said Miguel. “They’re a team, and they believe in what they do, they care about what they do, and they’ve built a family around what they do.”

Charles especially wanted Miguel to see that the custodial staff is made up of true professionals and to acknowledge the urgent need for personnel in this area of work. It seems this is exactly what Miguel took away from the experience:  “When people come to a community college, the first thing that they see is the facility. It’s important to have an adequately staffed custodial department so that we’re ready to provide the very best educational system that we can for our students.”

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