![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
![Students drew chalk art in honor of Veterans day. This is just one of many things the school does to show appreciation to veterans, and the art will remain in the courtyard as a reminder of all of the veterans who served their country. “On veteran’s day, I think it’s a great thing we do at school to honor people that served [who are] at our school or family members,” English teacher and cheer coach Nadira King said. “It makes me feel proud, and it makes me remember the [veterans].”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Capture.png)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
![Standing proud, varsity senior athletes Rafael Escobar, Griffin Jacobs, Jakob Martin, and juniors Jackson Springer and Jack Morris pose with their newly earned medals. The varsity team finished third out of 14 teams on Sept. 25. “The team's primary goal is to win the district championship,” head coach Cody Price said. "We're confident that with our action plan in place, we can accomplish this mission. [For the next tournament], our preparation involves assessing our strengths and weaknesses, celebrating milestones and creating individual development plans." Photo courtesy of Cody Price](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/golf.jpg)
![The cross country team poses for the camera after finishing the district meet. The varsity boys, JV boys and JV girls all placed third and the varsity girls placed fourth. “Coach put in the right training for us for this season, so I think we will be peaking this week and the next couple of weeks,” varsity runner and junior Nathan Kukla said. “The chances of making it to state are very high, but we don’t settle for the lowest and there is always going to be that chance, so [we] race for the best.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Heidi-831-1200x900.jpg)
Lights – Check. Bathrooms – Check. Floors – Check. Cafeteria – Check. Custodian Julia Cuellar goes through her long list of things to do for the day. Every day she has responsibilities before, during and after school, and she is just one of many custodians who keep the school clean.
The week of Oct. 7-11 is custodian appreciation week. Leander ISD sets aside this week to appreciate custodians in our district. Spanish teacher Rhonda Bynell said custodians do a really wonderful job, and she is grateful for the work they put in every day.
“They clean student bathrooms all day long and there’s a lot of work,” Bynell said. “They clean the break rooms, they clean teachers rooms, they help with cafeteria work, etcetera, so it’s a lot.”
Bynell said that if the custodians didn’t do what they did, the school would be very dirty. In addition to the responsibilities Bynell listed, Cuellar said she does even more to keep the school clean.
“Every morning before school I turn on all the lights and go to the library to clean the floor,” Cuellar said. “Then, I clean the bathrooms of the fieldhouse. After that I go to the cafeteria to clean it for lunch. I clean the windows, check the trash, check the bathrooms to make sure they have toilet paper, and clean them. Then I make sure the cafeteria is ready for [first] lunch. Lunch ends, and I clean up the trash from the courtyard and get ready for second lunch. Then I look over the bathrooms again, I clean the cafeteria again, take the trash out, and get the cafeteria ready for the next day.”
With all of this on the custodian’s plates, students and teachers can help them out with their jobs. Junior Carson Liddiard said he wants to be more helpful and supportive of the custodians.
“We [should] try to be more careful about making messes and try to be better about cleaning up after ourselves,” Liddiard said. “Since they do so much for our school, we should try to help them by not making them clean our messes.”
Although Liddiard believes that students and teacher’s help can be beneficial to the custodians, there are still many responsibilities that they have. However, Cuellar said she loves her job despite all the difficulties.
“I like all parts of the job, I can’t choose one over the other,” Cuellar said. “I like to work, I like the students, the kids, I like the school, I like everything. Everyone is so nice. It makes me happy that they can come to a clean school.”
Cuellar said she feels welcome, but Bynell said there are more things students and staff can do to show their appreciation.
“I think we could support them and show them appreciation all year long,” Bynell said. “Whenever you see them, say thank you for what you do.”
