Pub. 4 2014-2015 Issue 2

27 There is no longer a good reason to spend countless hours refinishing floors, disinfecting every surface of your school, or spending multiple hours cleaning restrooms. New chemicals, products, and equipment exist that can prolong the life of your floors while keeping them looking like new and reduces the time to clean and refinish them. There is new innovative equipment that hygienically clean and disinfect every nook and cranny of your restroom without touching the surfaces while cutting cleaning time in half. The presence of a good antimicrobial surface treatment will protect your high touch surfaces where the majority of all the germs in your school are spread and not allow germs to pass from one person to another. If you are still using a string mop at your school then you should realize how inefficient, ineffective, and unproductive that truly is. Don’t get stuck in old habits by keeping up to date on industry changes. I attend the International Sanitary Supply Association (ISSA) conference each year looking for better ways to clean commercial and educational buildings to provide a healthier environment for each client. Each time, I find new products and innovations that help us provide better service and reduce our overall costs in labor and product. It may appear at the beginning that the investment in the right equipment and products is very costly. In some cases it actually may be, if you have not done your due diligence and research. I recently met with a school that purchased a floor scrubber and felt they got a “great deal” as the scrubber’s retail price was significantly higher. Although that scrubber will increase production rates and lower labor costs, more cost effective pieces of equipment and products exist that can complete the same tasks while providing a quicker return on invest- ment while decreasing the overall net operating costs of the school. It could be a slightly used piece of equipment that was purchased at a low cost, or better yet, a newer technology invented to compete in the marketplace. It is important to DO YOUR RESEARCH! You may be surprised about the huge impact a simple change in a product or piece of equipment can make for you, your staff, and your school. Develop and implement effective procedures and routines. Many administrators feel that it is enough to simply provide a check list of the daily, weekly, monthly, and specialty work tasks and services that need to be completed throughout the year to the custodial and maintenance staff members. It is definitely important to let them know what the expectations are, but if this is all that you provide, then you will only be setting your custodial crew and maintenance staff up for failure. It is extremely important to develop, provide training, and implement very effective and efficient procedures and routines. We are all human and forget to do things and get burned out by doing too many things at one time. By imple- menting specific procedures and routines into the schools, the individuals completing those procedures and routines become less likely to forget and become more efficient at completing the implemented procedures and routines over time as they become more familiar with each task completed. The results should create extra time where those same individuals can complete additional tasks. Safety concerns and accidents will also decrease as effective procedures and routines are developed. It is important to note however that school and facilities management needs to constantly reevaluate, refine and implement new procedures and routines as the school ages and the demands of the school change. Clean for health. Cleaning for health is much easier said than done! Many of us think that if a surface looks clean it does not have many germs and bacteria etc. This is certainly not the case. There was a recent infographic provided by ISSA, called How Dirty is Your Child’s School? This infographic provided information to schools to illustrate the importance of cleaning in several unique environments. This infographic provided information showing that nearly 22 million school days are lost annually due to the common cold and approximately 38 million school days were lost because of influenza. According to ISSA, the top five germ breeding and bacteria hotspots children are exposed to at schools included: 1. Water fountain spigot: 2,700,000 bacteria per inch 2. Cafeteria trays: 33,800 bacteria per inch 3. Cold water faucets: 32,000 bacteria per inch 4. Cafeteria plate: 15,800 bacteria per inch 5. Computer keyboard: 3,300 bacteria per inch Students, parents, custodian, and other school staff can take several simple steps to provide a healthier school environment and protect themselves against the spread of infection. The first and most important thing every school can do is provide training and mentoring to students and staff members about the importance of washing hands at every moment possible. When the opportunity to wash hands is not available, sanitizers can be placed at strategic locations throughout the school. It is also extremely important to train and implement a “cleaning for health” program in every school while utilizing the most effective products, equipment, procedures, and routines as explained earlier in this article. The newer and more advanced chemicals and equipment will help keep your facility cleaner and provide a much healthier environment to teach and learn in. If you incorporate these ideas and suggestions and provide a standard of cleaning for health purposes you will definitely notice the difference that it will make in the appearance of your building and the positive affect on your staff and students. Shea Sealy is the Founder and President of Advanced Building Care, LLC a Utah business partner with the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools. Shea and his staff provide free on-site trainings for all Utah public charter schools in order to help school staff members increase janitorial service production rates, lower overall costs, and provide safer and healthier environments for students and staff members.