Derek Sancho, second from left, is Staff Member of the Year at Mill Creek Elementary School. Congratulating Sancho are principal Carmen Buchanan, superintendent Dr. Dee Fowler and coordinator of elementary instruction Judy Warmath. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Derek R. Sancho has been selected as 2015 Staff Member of the Year at Mill Creek Elementary School.

He is responsible for cleaning 20 upstairs classrooms, five restrooms, science rooms A and B, teacher workroom and break room. His other daily work includes dust/wet mopping all hallways, classroom, gym and multi-purpose room.

“I have to make sure that the second, third and front doors are locked every night,” Sancho said. “I also run the floor machine throughout the whole building every night.”

“My most rewarding part of the job is seeing the building clean every night after a hard day there at Mill Creek,” he said. Sancho’s most challenging task is stripping and waxing floors during summer.

“We only have myself and one other custodian in the summer. It’s a big building … this school,” Sancho said. When he worked at Home Depot, he won “Employee of the Month” awards two times.

Sancho is proud that he has worked with “the kids on their citizen program in Mrs. Susan Maynard’s fifth-grade class. I check in on them before work to see how things are going.”

This school year, Sancho “had the honor of winning a hero award from a fifth-grade student. Kaitlyn Taylor nominated me, and I won.”

Because of Taylor’s kindness, she is the student that Sancho will always remember. He has known Taylor’s mother, grandmother and brother for the six years that Taylor has attended Mill Creek.

“When she was in second grade, Kaitlyn got a chicken from her grandmother. She used to tell me how she played with the chicken and loved it,” Sancho said. “I decided to call her ‘Rooster.’ The name stuck with her throughout the years.”

He has “three beautiful children that live in New York City in the Bronx — Derek R., Eric and Christy Lee Sancho.” He has six grandsons and two granddaughters.

For Sancho, working at Mill Creek “has been a real pleasure around these kids and wonderful staff. I think I’m blessed to work in such a beautiful environment.”