While most Daviess County Public Schools students, teachers and staff members did not attend school Wednesday due to concerns of below-freezing temperatures and unsafe weather conditions, the maintenance staff was hard at work throughout the district ensuring that each building was properly cleaned and sanitized in anticipation of the students return.
Cold weather was not the only reasoning in Superintendent Matt Robbins’ decision to close DCPS Wednesday, Robbins also said that low attendance due to illness played a factor.
Although the custodial and maintenance departments are committed to ensuring clean, safe environments for teaching and learning every day, during cold and flu season, those efforts escalate to even higher levels. For this reason, a day without students and teachers in the building came at a perfect time to try to alleviate some of those concerns.
The DCPS district has provided each school with new electrostatic disinfectant misters to help with sanitization.
College View Middle School Head Custodian Erik Simon, is ensuring that College View gets the deep cleaning it needs today while younger hands are not around. Simon and the custodial staff will spray door handles, keyboards, water fountains, tables, desks and chairs, while the night crew helps sanitize the walls.
“We were told that it [the disinfectant] needs 10 minutes to completely activate and do what it’s supposed to do,” Simon said. “It’s important to be able to access those areas without being able to worry about children trying to access them while its trying to activate.”
Simon said parents can have increased peace of mind knowing that the district is doing everything it can to use this time to ensure the cleanliness of their child’s school.
“With our attendance being what it has been — over 100 kids out every day this week,” Simon said, “it shows parents that we are actively working to improve the health quality within the school.”
DCPS maintenance director David Shutt said the new disinfectant equipment and protocols should help assist custodial staff in putting the health of students and staff first.
“The new electrostatic disinfectant misters are among several measures we employ to combat illness,” said Shutt. “The health and well-being of our students and staff is very important to us. Our custodians take their responsibilities seriously in maintaining healthy classrooms and learning environments for our kids every day.”
