Like a modern-day, Monongalia County version of St. Patrick, John Hines keeps the snakes out of University High School.
Not that they actually inhabit the confines of the sprawling school on Bakers Ridge.
There are about 30 acres that must be regularly mowed at the school, which is in the rural climes near the Pennsylvania border.
No mowing means campus-slithering can occur, Hines said.
A snake in the grass (you know), he said.
Besides, he asked, why wouldn’t you mow anyway?
“Even if you don’t have kids in school right now, you still want to keep up,” he said. “You still want things looking nice.”
Which is why UHS Principal Kim Greene really does think he’s a saint.
And why Monongalia County Schools recently named him 2020’s Service Person of the Year for the district.
“Yeah, I had no idea they were doing that,” Hines said.
Greene knew.
She can give you a Chromebook-full of reasons why.
“John is one of those guys who can fix anything,” she said.
“He just knows what needs to be done. If another custodian calls off, he’ll take his shift. He’ll pull lunch duty.”
All with a trademark smile and mellow demeanor, she said.
“I just like my job,” Hines said. “I like what I’m doing.”
Hines, who is 59, went to work for the district in 1995.
Before that, he earned his paychecks at University Foodland and Austin’s Grocery, honing his ease with people to go with a Get It Done work ethic.
At UHS, he’ll patiently stroll into every work situation with nary a trace of intimidation — or irritation.
“I’ll at least give the old college try,” he said.
He showed his mechanical aptitude and problem-solver’s heart and brain as a kid in First Ward.
That was in his mom’s house. She had a heart full of love, but sometimes, what couldn’t be repaired, necessarily, couldn’t be replaced either.
Hines was 8 when his dad, Phillip, suffered a fatal heart attack.
That left his mother, Dolly, to soldier on with John and his five brothers and sisters.
“She kept it all together,” he said.
Hines is a Morgantown High graduate.
At UHS, he’ll jokingly refer to his alma mater as, “That other high school, across town.”
The high school on Bakers Ridge, meanwhile, has a custodial staff of 10 with a tenfold workload.
And don’t get him started on those lo-ooong hallways, he said, laughing.
Or their floors that should reward you with six points and an end zone celebration after you’ve finished polishing them.
“They’re something like 100 yards long,” he said.
“That’s a football field. You get a workout, just by walking them.”
Other aspects of his job might be considered an unpleasant workout for some.
Such as lunch duty.
That shift, he does intuitively.
Call him the Cafeteria Whisperer.
He’s tamped many a scuffle, catching a flicker of a look across the Jell-O concerning something that happened in homeroom or after the football game.
His principal is impressed.
“John’ll say, ‘You might want to watch that table over there,’ and he’s right.”
“That’s just being around kids,” Hines said.
“I miss ’em. This building’s too big.”
TWEET @DominionPostWV
