KSHB 41 News reporter Braden Bates covers parts of Jackson County, Missouri, including Lee's Summit. Send Braden a story idea by e-mail.
School districts around the metro area have maintenance crews preparing for the weekend's winter blast.
That includes the Lee's Summit R-7 School District.
The district's maintenance departments are one of the most important departments in a school district. They are essential workers when their work involves clearing snow in bitter cold temperatures at schools and other buildings in the school district.
KSHB 41 Lee's Summit reporter Braden Bates rode with a grounds supervisor in the Lee's Summit School District to see how crews make sure the schools remain operational even when students are at home.
"I wouldn’t give it up for anything because you get to do something different with it every day," said John Gunther, grounds supervisor at Lee's Summit R-7 school district.
It was one of those something different days as he was salting and pretreating the parking lots around the district's buildings.
He's worked at the district for 18 years, the last five as the district's grounds supervisor.
"I told myself, 'Oh I’ll do it for five years,"' he said. "Now I’m doing it every day. [I] still love it."
Gunther wears many hats in his job, but with snow in the forecast, he's managing the roadways.
"Mainly plowing until we are for sure its going to be done snowing," Gunther said. "If there’s going to be more traffic at the site, we will throw more salt," said Gunther.
He’s one of those in charge of the district's 36 buildings. It's a task that puts him on-call 24 hours a day until snow and ice clears.
"Not getting much sleep, but that’s okay, and then, depending on what it is, if we get an inch of snow, then we push every time. It doesn’t matter what it is," Gunther said.
It’s a job the district said is important even when kids aren’t on campus. That's because the buildings need to be maintained even in the harshest conditions.
"Sunday we’ll come in and do the main cleanup and re-treat everything and hopefully have school on Monday," he said.
His job's a responsibility he doesn't take lightly. With more than 17,000 students in the district and a large district staff, his goal is everyone's safety.
"Gotta make sure our buses can get in our parking lots safe," said Gunther.
He said the district's equipped with many tools to deal with winter weather, including five snow plows and salt trucks.
Gunther said said every storm is like a middle schooler — they all come with a personality, and sometimes you have to wait to see how big that personality will be.
But there's one main reason he loves providing safety for the district.
"It really is all about the kids," Gunther said. "That’s our mission statement, always has been. I’m sure it always will be," Gunther said.
