The guidelines for student work service have changed once again. In the past three years, there have been two updates to how and when students clean the halls, classrooms and stairs of the main school buildings.

Students in the Class of 2018 have only heard stories about the “glory days” that were minimum once a week work service duties. When the current seniors stepped through the doors of MSMS, the once a week cleaning assignments turned to Monday through Thursday cleaning duties.  The most recent change, adding Friday as an extra day, has some students scrambling to find time to tidy up.

One student states, “Having work service on Fridays is extremely inconvenient when you live over thirty minutes away.”

Dr. Heath Stevens, MSMS alumnus and current member of staff, has observed many changes over the years. “From my perspective, working here for six years and going here as a student many years ago, work service tends to evolve. When I was a student here, it was two hours a week total,” Stevens states.

As for the rumors about budget cuts being the reason for the work service extension, Dr. Stevens says, “I have not heard anything associated with budget cuts to the change. I’m not saying it is or it isn’t, but that was not anything I was told about.”

Along with the shift in work service times, the responsibilities that go along with work service have also changed.  Last year, teachers could request both custodial and secretarial help.  Now, if the teacher requires them to do so, all students must perform custodial acts as well as secretarial.

“I have had students in the past who did different things for me. Once upon a time I had pianists; in other words they could help me with choir, like accompanying and also picking out notes for me, ” says Ms. Dawn Barham, music instructor.  

Barham has also had work service students in the past who would run the sound systems for Sites and Sounds, dances, guest speakers and other MSMS events.

One reason for the changes in work service is to allow for more equal distribution of labor.  

“We had been hearing from students who were complaining they would spend an hour a week [doing work service] while another student spends 15 minutes a week.  [Now] We’ve put a lot of thought into how much time does it take for each task and the number of people we need to allocate to it,” says Dr. Germain McConnell, Executive Director, but even he admits that the system is not perfect.

Whether the labor is truly equal or not is something that remains unknown until new patterns begin to emerge.

However, the administration is willing to make changes and adjustments to balance out the work loads.

McConnell says that “we need students to communicate with their supervisors and also [we need] recommendations to administrators–Mrs. Brown, Mr. Smith, myself. We’re open to those conversations.”