The Mystery of Carver Center’s Dirty Floors

Carver Center for Arts and Technology (also known as Carver Center) is one of the best magnet schools in Baltimore County Public Schools. When you enter the building, you typically notice the detailed artwork on the walls, the diverse students, and  … the dirty floors? 

To uncover the truth, I decided to interview one of the people maintaining the building: R. P., a building service worker. I asked them what they thought about the state of the building. “The general cleaning? Sometimes it’s rough and sometimes it’s not. It all depends on what’s happening that day or what’s going on.” Contrary to expectations, they offered a relatively normal answer due to how accustomed they were to cleaning the dirty floors. When one adjusts to a workload, difficult tasks no longer seem as difficult even though they still require much effort. 

When I asked what they thought was the filthiest area, they immediately answered, “The cafeteria. I would say the cafeteria; that’s only because of, you know, the food and stuff like that. You know, the lunch trash and all that kind of stuff, food on the floor.” In the dining hall, flies dance across the room. Many students choose instead to eat outside or the hallways. Although these areas are still somewhat dirty, anywhere is better than the dining hall.

At last, I asked the most pressing question: What do you think about Carver Center’s floors? Sure enough, they had criticism prepared. “These floors? I wish they didn’t have white floors in here. I do the art area and to me, it didn’t make sense to put a white floor in an art room when you have pencil shavings, black marks, the white holes, the art, all the floors that are white in this building. I feel like they should be like that gray.”