Facilities manager with the P.A. Catholic School Division Dan Gareau shows off the electrostatic sprayer or atomizer. It charges and ionizes the disinfection solution which makes the droplets act like a magnet. (submitted photo/PACSD)

By Glenn Hicks

sanitized schools

Super clean schools await return of P.A. students next week

Sep 3, 2020 | 8:00 AM

As families in the Prince Albert area prepare to send their kids back to school next week amid the unknowns and unease around COVID-19 transmission, one thing appears clear — schools will be very clean.

“Currently our schools have never been cleaner,” Lorel Trumier, the director of education for the Prince Albert Catholic School Division (PACSD), told paNOW.

She noted caretaking staff have had since March to ensure extensive deep cleaning and to prepare for the increased sanitization protocols and practices that will become the new norm.

Trumier said staff would be very diligent in handling the heavy-duty disinfecting after, and in some cases before each school day, but there will also now be a significant presence throughout the day.

“It’ll be very common to see our caretakers wiping down surfaces and touch points like doors and handles, switches and rails, benches and counters,” she said.

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Parents and families can do their part

And while she assured students and families that classrooms and protocols would be in place regarding social distancing and the wearing of facemasks, she called on the adults at home to do their part in helping to create good habits.

“Let’s work with our children to show them how to live in a pandemic. Prepare them for wearing their mask by getting them to wear it for a few minutes every day so they get used to it. Make sure there’s sanitizer and hand-washing and [that message] is being reinforced at home,” she said.

Trumier called such positive activity the “heavy lifters” in terms of preventing the spread of the virus.

New hi-tech equipment

While behaviour is a key part of stemming the virus, so too is the chemical battle. One of the pieces of equipment being brought in for use in all our local schools is an atomizer or electrostatic sprayer that will make the job of sanitization that much more effective.

“We use a cleaning compound mixed with water that then adheres to all the surfaces — desks, countertops, lockers – that need disinfecting,” PACSD facilities manager Dan Gareau explained.

Meanwhile, the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division (SRPSD) is expecting its consignment of atomizers to arrive imminently and they will help custodial staff add an extra layer — literally – to sanitization.

“We’ll be applying the microbial shield to all hard surfaces and high touch areas and that gives 30 days of protection,” superintendent of facilities Mike Hurd explained. “That product is also going on all the touch surfaces on our buses as well.”

Hurd said they have added around 600 hand sanitizing dispensing stations so there will be one in each classroom and across the division.

He explained the division had upped its disinfection game since the H1N1 pandemic in 2009 so when COVID-19 hit they were well prepared.

“We’ll ensure we do the high touch areas at least once a day, and in some cases twice a day. Our staff work diligently to get ready every summer… and we’ve taken extra steps to make sure we have as much in place as possible to make things safe for students, teachers and staff,” he said.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow