Irvine School Custodian Rhonda Pruden Featured in School Interview Project

In the photo: Custodian Rhonda Pruden is being interviewed by grade 3 students

Learning about different roles people have is part of the new health curriculum. At the beginning of February, Grade 3 students at Irvine School practiced their interviewing skills on staff to find out about the roles they play in the school, at home and in the community.  

Teacher Emily Weimer explained, “It went really well, although a lot of the students were really nervous. Some are new to our school this year, so they haven’t grown up with some of those teachers or seen them around, so that was an added level of pressure. They were relieved when they came back and said it wasn’t so bad or was fun and they enjoyed it once they got to do it. We made pamphlets and drew some pictures to give back to the person they interviewed.”  

Teegan and Hannah, along with a third classmate, interviewed Rhonda Pruden, a custodian at Irvine School, to demonstrate the process. In the original project, all students interviewed a staff member individually, but last week the three students took turns asking Pruden about her roles and responsibilities. All students admitted they were nervous asking adults about their lives and were surprised by the new things they learned about them.  

“I liked how we got to interview and how they got to share things about themselves,” said Teegan. “Some people have kids still at home who are like 20.” When asked to say why this was surprising, Teegan replied she thought by that age they would have moved out of the family home.  

Hannah enjoyed doing the interviews, although admitted it would have been easier to interview her classmates or friends. “It’s kind of scary asking people about their lives and I was nervous asking a teacher what they do because they are adults.” She was proud and happy with herself once the project was done and said she learnt lots about the teacher she interviewed.   

“In my job, I am the custodian, so my main job is to keep the school clean and healthy for all the kids,” Pruden told the students. “I think my job as a custodian, I do lots of things more than just cleaning. Sometimes I help kids find teachers, or I’m getting band-aids and other days I’m helping in the kitchen. Sometimes being a custodian, or just working in a school, you might have one job, but you get to do a lot of different things.” She’s been with PRPS at Irvine School for over 16 years and lives locally. 

Purden volunteers on the municipal and local library board and at the Irvine Community Library.  She’s been on the municipal board for about six years and the local one for around 10 years. The municipal board concentrates on financing the Irvine and Ralston libraries while the local board focuses primarily on programming.  

 By Samantha Johnson, Prairie Rose Public Schools Content Writer