Armed with germ-busting guns that spray disinfectant over a wide swath, a small army of school custodians is confident it can win the war over COVID-19 and keep classrooms safe.
CUPE Local 3742 president Karen Wong said custodial staff who oversee cleaning of the city’s 24 school buildings are well-equipped for the task thanks to forward-thinking School District 57 administrators who have simplified the job of disinfecting surfaces and school equipment.
They are using time-saving cordless handheld electrostatic sprayers that have taken much of the grunt work out of fighting the virus. After testing the portable spray gun earlier this summer, the district has purchased 40 more at about $1,000 each. They were ordered before provincial funding was in place and are now being used in the schools.
“I know this is a worrisome time but for custodians this is a big win for us,” said Wong. “Because of the COVID virus our district bought these Victory electrosprayers and they can fog a classroom in five or 10 minutes.
“In the worst-case scenario, if they thought a child had COVID, the daytime custodian would take the electrosprayer and get everyone to leave the room, and they would shut the door and fog the room and let it sit for however long it takes to dry. Then everybody goes back in. Every contact surface it touches it immediately disinfects and it’s safe for the kids.
“The custodians are pleased because when we used to get a large absence of students for the flu, you would have to go in and hand-clean everything. Now you can use the sprayer. It’s going to be used when we hit flu season and if there’s strep throat in the school. Any of these communicable diseases we can use the sprayer for.”
The district also has a larger-scale disinfectant sprayer capable of covering 18,000 square feet per hour which was used in May and June but it proved too cumbersome to transport to all the schools.
When schools reopened in June for part-time in-class instruction under Stage 3 reopening restrictions Wong says that gave custodial staff a crash course in how to go about keeping schools COVID-free. Since then, the province has shifted to less-restrictive Stage 2 protocols and the feedback she’s been getting from the schools since classes resumed late last week has been nothing but positive.
“Stage 3 looked more worrisome than Stage 2,” said Wong. “In Stage 3 we didn’t know as much about the virus. We thought everything transmitted it and we had a lot of unknowns. Now at Stage 2 our custodians are going in feeling very good about this and they’re confident.
“All of our work groups were pleased with the (first) week.”
As part of the province’s $45.6 million investment to address health and safety issues in schools, $23 million has been made available to hire additional cleaning staff. SD 57 has hired 10 new full-time custodians and that hiring is continuing with as many as 15 full- or part-time workers still to be added. There is a now a staff of 108 working custodians in Prince George district schools.
Before the pandemic, schools were cleaned in the afternoon and evening, when students were gone for the day. Now that enhanced cleaning is being done during school hours and the most experienced staff members have moved to day shifts.
CUPE Local 3742 represents support staff in SD 57 schools, including custodians, clerical staff, Indigenous workers, education assistants, Strong Start workers and early education staff.
