Sustainability Spotlight: Standout Custodians
This month’s Sustainability Spotlight is shining on three exceptional LPS custodial staff members!
They and their teams are integral to managing waste programs and supporting sustainability efforts across the district, and these custodians have really gone above and beyond this school year.
Brendan Patchen at Eastridge Elementary School
Brandan Patchen serves as the Assistant Custodial Supervisor at Eastridge Elementary School, where he has worked for four years. Patchen has been with the district for seven years and started coordinating Green Schools Recognition Program activities with this school year.
Eastridge has already earned an impressive 275 points by reading books from the Climate Action Bookshelf, engaging with energy lessons from LES and collecting over 400 items for donation to the People’s City Mission! Patchen has worked to involve students at every grade level, as well as building staff and the school community.
“I am so proud of how Eastridge’s staff and students have responded to our efforts,” Patchen said. “I couldn’t do this without the wonderful staff at Eastridge who have taken time out of their busy schedules to work with me on new ideas to help our school’s efforts in sustainability.”
Leslie Stroup at Moore Middle School
Leslie Stroup serves as Moore Middle School’s Assistant Custodial Supervisor, where she has worked for the last two years. Stroup has been with LPS for seven years in total, and was part of the team that opened the building in 2017. She has been instrumental in the success of the recycling and composting programs at Moore.
Stroup ensures that each student who comes through the lunchroom waste station feels confident sorting their waste and welcome in the building overall. She and the rest of the custodial team manage waste collection throughout the building, including in the school kitchen. As a distribution location for school lunches, the kitchen generates much more waste than the average middle school as Nutrition Services Staff prepares food for multiple other schools.
“I think Moore just has something special going on here,” she said. “Zappa, our principal, is top notch and supports everything we do, and everyone in the building is onboard.”
Brandon Rogers at Northeast High School
Brandon Rogers started working at LPS 11 years ago and has supported students and staff at Northeast High School for the last four years. As the Custodial Supervisor, he most recently facilitated a container reset at Northeast.
Rogers partnered with the Sustainability team who labeled and standardized waste bins throughout the building to promote recycling, reduce the number of plastic bin liners being used and save time for the custodial team. Rogers said that the December reset has already made an impact on waste management in the building. Clear labeling and easily accessible containers have greatly increased the number of cans and plastic bottles being recycled at Northeast.
“Every TPC and lounge now has a place to put their cans, bottles and paper recycling and every hallway has the right amount of containers to for the amount of traffic our building sees,” Rogers said. “I would say a lot of students staff are playing their role.”
We are so grateful to have custodians like Brendan, Leslie and Brandon in our district! Every one of them is dedicated to making things a little better for staff and students every day, and we couldn’t imagine LPS without them.
Updated March 5, 2025
