I spoke with Napa Valley Unified School District’s Director of Planning and Construction Don Evans to find out why someone would set up camp on campus.

He said the mobile home houses a caretaker for the campus, and its not the only school in the school district that has one. Eight schools have a similar arrangement. Vintage High, Redwood and Silverado middle schools, Pueblo Vista, Napa Valley Language Academy and Donaldson Way elementaries also have people who live on the school campus and keep an eye on the property. This arrangement has been in place at the district for 25 or 30 years, he said.

Some schools are more likely to be targets of vandalism. With McPherson, Evans points to the fact the school shares a boundary with a popular city park. That collaboration has lots of benefits — the school benefits through use of the park’s ball fields, the park has more open space since residents can use the play structures at the school — but with those benefits comes more people who want to visit the area. Vandalism is a reality there.

The district does what it can to protect its property from vandals, Evans said. A chain link fence separates the school from the park, and fencing separates the classrooms from each other after hours. Still, there has been more graffiti than the school district wants to see, and a caretaker on site was deemed an appropriate solution.

Seems pretty appropriate to me, especially knowing that these individuals don’t get paid extra for the caretaker duties. In exchange, they don’t pay rent on the land under the mobile homes. They just keep an eye on the school campus, and try to deter anyone from pulling out the spray paint.

Evans expressed confidence that the amount of vandalism has declined with the presence of on-campus caretakers, despite what my curious reader has gleaned from a “last report.” Where the district has had bad experiences with vandals, “when there’s a resident caretaker that activity diminishes significantly.”

In McPherson’s case, the caretaker is the longtime custodian at Shearer Elementary. He encourages anyone he comes across on the McPherson campus to be cool and play by the rules, and if they don’t, he gets the police involved.

Even so, there’s still incidents of graffiti and vandalism on campus. A summer or two ago, Evans said, miscreants broke into a classroom and covered it with paint and other materials. The room was unusable for days as the carpet was replaced and the mess was cleaned up.

The goal is to maintain an environment that kids can feel good about and safe in. It would be pretty glum to come to school and find what is, for many, a home away from home, has been made into a mess. The caretakers aren’t at every school, but where they are it benefits the school and the community.

Evans also told me that the district is piloting a security camera set-up at the new Vintage pool. The next time someone wants to take liberties and go for an off-hours swim or otherwise breach the gate, he or she may be making a splash with the authorities.

What is Glad You Asked?

Glad You Asked attempts to answer readers’ questions. So if you’re wondering about something, don’t paint your question on the wall of a public building or mark it on a public park. Send it to me at jdecker@napanews.com or 256-2215.