Inside the tall, brown brick buildings of Whittier Elementary in Southeast Albuquerque, small children sit at long cafeteria tables, talking excitedly as they scarf down their lunches.

Louie Sanchez stands and observes them as they finish their meals, instructing them to place their empty lunch trays inside large gray trash cans and dump the remnants of their half-empty milk cartons into a separate bucket.

Sanchez, 37, has been an Albuquerque Public Schools custodian for 16 years. He started as a night custodian in 1992 working from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. and worked in several different elementary schools.

An Albuquerque native and a graduate of Valley High School, Sanchez has been the head custodian at Whittier for 10 months, meaning he works days.

Lunchtime means it is Sanchez's job to ensure the kids clean up their messes as they exit the cafeteria.

As the children disperse, forming lines with their classmates and marching outside, Sanchez sweeps the area and empties the trash cans, wiping down the outsides as he goes.

Just as he finishes, another group of children enter the cafeteria and the routine continues until the nearly 500 children at Whittier have eaten.

It may sound simple, but Sanchez's day making sure the school stays spic and span started at 5:30 a.m.

When Sanchez arrives at the school in the mornings, he immediately gets to work cleaning the front offices and restrooms as well as the library and the teacher's lounge.

Then, he makes his rounds throughout the school grounds inspecting sidewalks and buildings for any damage such a broken windows or graffiti. Sanchez said problems like these at Whittier vary in their frequency and seriousness, but if he sees anything that needs to be repaired, he will call his supervisor, Larry Griego, who will then issue a work order.

"If there's glass or whatever, I'll clean it up so the kids won't get hurt or anything," Sanchez said.

Once Sanchez has finished his rounds, picking up trash and blowing the sidewalks free of debris, it's time to set up the lunch tables for the schoolchildren who have arrived early to eat breakfast. Sanchez estimates about 100 to 130 students eat breakfast at Whittier.

As for his breakfast duties, Sanchez must oversee that the kids clean up after themselves just like they must do at lunchtime.

When the cafeteria is again clean and ready for lunch, it's time to take a break, so Sanchez gets to relax for about 15 minutes. He will have two of these breaks during his work shift, plus a half-hour lunch break.

However, before his lunch break, there are a few other things to take care of.

"I have to clean up emergencies like maybe the nice words in the bathrooms that the kids write, like graffiti and just kids messes," Sanchez said. "They write little small bad words, but they can't spell it, they just spell it out like it sounds."

When these tasks are complete, Sanchez takes his lunch break with the lunch ladies and then gets ready for the kids to start coming in for their own lunches from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Then, Sanchez stocks up on supplies throughout the school and double-checks the administrative offices for cleanliness.

Before he leaves at 2 p.m., Sanchez checks in with the two night custodians to make sure they know if there will be any after-school activities happening, such as dances or PTA meetings.

Sanchez also fills in while the school district searches for a new custodial day supervisor. He trains newly hired day custodians a few times per week.

The benefits of the job are the same as what every APS employee gets, Sanchez said, including annual leave, sick leave, health insurance and a retirement plan. Employees have access to their retirement fund after 25 years but can continue to accumulate additional funds the more time they work for the school district.

Sanchez said that every day has its own pace. Sometimes, his job is more relaxed and laid back, but other times it can be just one thing after another.

"What I really dread is the vomit and number two," Sanchez said. "But you've got your good days and you've got your bad days."

On the good days, Sanchez said he won't have to clean up any extra messes at all. But sometimes the bad days make up for it with as many as five incidents of the really icky messes.

And what's almost as worse as those icky messes?

"The only other thing I really dislike is the glitter when they do projects for Christmas and things like that," Sanchez said. "It's hard to vacuum because you can still see flakes of shininess."