{"id":73659,"date":"2025-01-13T10:43:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T17:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=73659"},"modified":"2025-01-13T10:44:40","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T17:44:40","slug":"fct-custodial-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/fct-custodial-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU partnership empowers special ed students through custodial work"},"content":{"rendered":"

A nascent partnership between NAU\u2019s Facility Services department and Flagstaff Unified School District (FUSD) is giving young people with disabilities the work experience they need to kickstart successful careers in northern Arizona.<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The partnership places special education high school students in custodial positions at NAU, where they learn how to reliably complete tasks, communicate with others and commute to the jobsite\u2014important skills for any high schooler to learn before entering the workplace. So far, the program has launched about 10 young adults into steady jobs in the local community, including at Warner\u2019s Nursery and Safeway.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe folks in this program are enjoying learning the tools they need to succeed in life,\u201d said <\/span>Chad Mlenar,<\/span><\/b> a custodial operations manager at NAU. \u201cWe are extremely glad and proud to be a part of these folks\u2019 lives, and we would love to see this program grow and grow. The benefits to the partners, to NAU and to our community are boundless.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The partnership\u2019s story began 10 years ago, when James Ingram, then a teacher at Coconino High School, founded Flagstaff Community Training (FCT), a program designed to provide soft-skills worksite training to fifth-year high school students with disabilities. Ingram\u2014now an assistant professor in NAU\u2019s College of Education\u2014taught the students how to use the Mountain Line bus, how to interact with other members of the community and how to advocate for themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ginny Bowen, a special education teacher who now runs FCT, said past program graduates spent time at NAU, working in Dining Services and helping College of Education students understand daily life for those with disabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t until August 2022 that the university and FUSD inked a memorandum of understanding, kicking off a formal partnership with Facility Services.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCustodial jobs seemed like a great fit for the FCT program,\u201d said <\/span>Stephanie Bauer<\/span><\/b>, associate vice president of facility services at NAU. \u201cWe felt like there would be a lot of other benefits beyond employment experience like familiarity with NAU\u2019s campus, which lends to an easier transition to NAU employment if the individual is interested.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

John Kovalik<\/span><\/b>, a special education student who currently works in Facility Services, said his job is teaching him work-related skills that will help support his future independence\u2014like taking the bus, which not only teaches time management but also helps him learn how to safely get around town solo.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI like to do the dust mopping, sweeping the stairs, vacuuming, wiping the windows and other jobs,\u201d Kovalik said. \u201cThe best part is working as a member of a team and meeting new people. Even though the university is very busy with college students, I really like working at NAU and I am learning new skills.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u202fWorking with FCT students like Kovalik has immeasurably enriched custodial employees\u2019 daily lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince day one, seeing them nervous and so full of energy, waiting to see what we were going to do that day, it has been a joy,\u201d said <\/span>Karla Lugo<\/span><\/b>, an assistant manager in the custodial department. \u201cTheir bubbly personalities and willingness to work made things so easy for us. Every time they accomplish or learn something new, they will celebrate and seeing their smiling faces is something I will keep with me forever.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mlenar said he hopes the partnership continues to grow, taking on even more FCT students and eventually hiring graduates into positions at NAU\u2014where employees enjoy competitive salaries and benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had one gentleman we offered a position to,\u201d Mlenar said, \u201cbut we trained him so well, he got a job at a Safeway store. Still a win for the program!\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/span><\/p>\n


\nJill Kimball | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-2282 | jill.kimball@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A nascent partnership between NAU\u2019s Facility Services department and Flagstaff Unified School District (FUSD) is giving young people with disabilities the work experience they need to kickstart successful careers in northern Arizona.\u202f\u00a0 The partnership places special education high school students in custodial positions at NAU, where they learn how to reliably complete tasks, communicate with…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":73660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}