Lincoln Public Schools custodians are breaking through language ceilings this spring with their hard work in a specialized English class.

Monica Tasse, Hilda Strehle, Chingwende Namadekere and Nga Nguyen are among 11 LPS custodians who have completed a Custodial Vocabulary class with the Lincoln Literacy organization. The course has increased both their comprehension of the English language and their on-the-job confidence at Lincoln High.

LPS Human Resources Specialist Mike Von Kaenel introduced the Custodial Vocabulary class to LPS Custodial Supervisor Scott Lanham this past fall. Lanham and Assistant Custodial Supervisor Devin Nielsen immediately recognized the importance of the program and encouraged many custodians to join it. Both said they have been heartened by the determination they have seen from everyone.

“A lot of the custodians in this group came from other professions in their home country, from teachers to police officers,” Nielsen said. “I have enjoyed seeing them become more comfortable with the English language, more confident, and seeing and hearing them communicating more comfortably with their peers at the building level and to our office as well.”

“I was able to stop into a few classes and was very impressed by the participation of all involved,” Lanham said. “On the final day, it was absolutely amazing to see the smiles and pride within this group of staff members as they received their certificates of completion.”

Strehle and Nguyen have both been at Lincoln High for three years, Tasse has worked at the high school for two years and Namadekere has been employed at LPS for 11 months. They said they enrolled in the class to become more confident during the workday.

“I wanted to improve my English,” Nguyen said. “I want to speak fluently.”

“I took the English class because I remember when I started to work for LPS, I didn’t speak any English,” Strehle said. “Devin was the supervisor and he helped me too much. I didn’t know how to say in English, ‘Load the trash can,’ or anything like that. It was for that.”

“For me, I took the class because I wanted to know what to use on the job,” Tasse said. “I wanted to know the names of things and how to use them.”

The 11 custodians began and finished the class by taking a test that measured their ability to understand English vocabulary. The group’s initial comprehension rate was 61 percent. By the end of the 10-hour course, the comprehension rate had soared to 84.4 percent.

Namadekere said Lincoln Literacy instructor Abby Cawley deserved much of the credit for that success. Cawley taught the group about many English concepts, such as sentence structure and pronunciation of words. She also helped them learn job-specific words such as names of tools, chemicals and machines.

“We all enjoyed it because our teacher was very good and social,” Namadekere said. “The way she was communicating to us and teaching us was great.”

The class has allowed the four Lincoln High custodians to speak more easily with others in the building. Strehle said she has enjoyed her conversations with teachers, administrators and students in hallways and classrooms.

“I like working here because they have good people,” Strehle said. “They have good supervisors, good teachers. They help me in the school. I want to say thank you.”

Nielsen said class members who work at other LPS buildings have displayed the same type of resourcefulness and initiative.

“They all show great pride in what they do,” Nielsen said. “They want to better themselves, improve the language barrier and better communicate not only in our department as a whole, but in the school buildings they’re employed at.”

Nine of the 11 custodians have decided to continue with a second class that will focus on general English vocabulary. Lanham said the additional course will give them the ability to apply for other types of LPS jobs such as bus drivers or health technicians.

“I don’t want to leave the class,” Tasse said. “I want to continue and maybe in the future go back to school.”

“I want to take more classes for speaking and reading,” Nguyen said.

Lanham said the willingness of the custodians to enroll in English classes bodes well for their futures.

“I did discuss with this group that there is absolutely no ceiling for how far they can advance inside or outside of our district,” Lanham said. “We will do what we can to help them achieve all their goals, whether within LPS or somewhere else, as sometimes people just need help finding the right avenue for their personal success.”

Namadekere agreed with Lanham’s optimistic outlook. He said the helpful words and actions from LPS and Lincoln Literacy have allowed all types of breakthroughs to become possible in their lives.

“The biggest thing is that because of this class, there’s no ceiling,” Namadekere said. “If you want in the future, you can do the class to be a supervisor or assistant supervisor. There’s no ceiling.”

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Lincoln High School

Lincoln High School

Lincoln High custodians gain confidence through English literacy program