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Custodian Mike Ocken runs his floor scrubber through the halls of York Elementary School. Ocken said, “We have kids running up and down these hallways all the time and when somebody happens to throw up, I’m the one to clean it.”

YORK -- As students pile into their homeroom at York Elementary School every morning, they may notice the squeaky clean carpet, the spotless countertops and polished windows. There is a man behind it all, Mike Ocken.

Ocken has been the custodian at York Elementary School for 18 years. Prior to working at YES, Ocken worked at Penner’s Tire and Auto, doing oil and tire changes.

“I went from working with grown-ups to working with kids,” chuckled Ocken.

From plumbing to electrical work to fixing broken desks, Ocken is always willing to jump in and do what he is told.

Ocken said, “Then, if I don’t know what I am doing in those areas, I get on the internet to figure it out.”

Besides the common maintenance work of running his handy floor scrubber, Ocken works double duty as a supervisor in the lunch room.

“I help wipe tables and shuffle kids in and out of the lunchroom,” Ocken said. “I like to think it’s the largest restaurant in town during the noon hour.”

Now and then, Ocken has to clean up a dumped milk carton, a splattered food tray, “sour” vomit, or maybe all three in one day. In his words, lunch time is “two hours of non-stop chaos.” He said raising kids of his own has helped him become immune to the dirty messes and the questionable after-smells.

Ocken has had plenty of ha-ha moments working at YES. He said he will never forget his very first day of working at YES. He was changing out a light in a classroom and he leaned the light bulb against a countertop. The bulb slid and exploded into a thousand of little pieces.

Ocken said, “All that was going through my head was, ‘Oh my lord, what I am doing here?’”

Over the years at YES, Ocken has seen a changes in door security systems that he has to program and cameras.

“The biggest change we’ve seen is how much safety is put forth to protect all of these kids,” said Ocken. “It’s all for the better but it’s still sad.”

Following all of the CDC guidelines for COVID-19 has also been a change for Ocken.

“When COVID hit, that was the most stressful time in all of my 18 years of being here. We had to make sure everything was disinfected and clean and we had a lot more on our plates than normal. Twice a week, we had to fill a fogging machine with disinfectant and shoot fog in all of the classrooms to kill the bacteria,” said Ocken.

Ocken has spent plenty of late evenings in the classrooms, making it “germ free,” but to him, it’s all worth it for the kids.

“I love waking up and going to work, and hearing the sounds of teachers and kids laughing in the hallways,” said Ocken. “This is a great place to work.”

At York Elementary School, Mike Ocken takes out hefty load of trash to the dumpster, a small yet critical job to keeping the school looking immaculate.

The paper towel dispensers never run out thanks to custodian, Mike Ocken, at York Elementary School.

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Custodian Mike Ocken runs his floor scrubber through the halls of York Elementary School. Ocken said, “We have kids running up and down these hallways all the time and when somebody happens to throw up, I’m the one to clean it.”

At York Elementary School, Mike Ocken takes out hefty load of trash to the dumpster, a small yet critical job to keeping the school looking immaculate.

The paper towel dispensers never run out thanks to custodian, Mike Ocken, at York Elementary School.

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