GOTHAMIST INTERVIEWS CUSTODIANS ABOUT DEEP CLEANING SCHOOL BUILDINGS

I saw a piece in Gothamist. The title says it all:

Officials Promise NYC Schools Will Be Cleaned Constantly When They Reopen. Custodians Wonder How

Some highlights:

In a town hall meeting with parents Tuesday, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza described the “very successful” cleaning process as implemented in the Regional Enrichment Centers the city operates for the children of essential workers.

“There are three or four people who have a spray bottle and a rag with disinfectant, walking 24-7 disinfecting rails, disinfecting knobs on doors, disinfecting common areas,” Carranza said. “We’re spraying and wiping all day long.”

The city has ordered “electrostatic disinfectors” — similar to what the MTA uses to clean the subways — which Carranza said “adds a whole other level of very sophisticated cleaning devices to what we're doing.”

“Add to that the additional sanitary or sanitation supplies that we're providing to every school classroom — disinfecting wipes, disinfectant sprays, towels, pumps with disinfectant,” he added. “So we are very much preparing for a very cleanly environment in every one of our schools.”

The head of the custodian engineers union pointed out this level of cleaning likely requires more staff, yet there hasn’t been any additional funding allocated yet and a hiring freeze remains in place.

“The problem is, I don't see that the budgets they provided to us are sufficient to provide the extra services that they are requesting of us to open – all the cleaning and disinfecting“, said Robert Troeller, Business Manager of the Local 891 custodian engineer union, in a phone interview. “It’s basically the same funding levels for staff that we had last fiscal year. Yet the staff is expected to do all this extra work. And I just don't know what's going to happen.”

There are about 8,000 employees who work in the public school system as custodians, handy persons, fire persons and engineers, Troeller said, and the city’s $640 million budget for this department remains the same as last year.

“I do realize it's going to be a little bit less crowded with a third or half the children (there) depending on the building. But to simply expect the same crew to accomplish all this extra work. It's very difficult. Very difficult and very stressful,” Troeller said. “Then, on top of that, they intend to feed the children in the classrooms all of their meals. Well, suddenly every room is the cafeteria. The amount of cleaning required increases tremendously.”

A little later:

A custodian at a large public school building in Brooklyn, who asked to stay anonymous because he wanted to keep his job, said there aren’t clear expectations yet: "I don't even know right now exactly what they want us to do."

A deep cleaning typically means the custodians will do their regular sweeping, mopping, taking out of trash, but also disinfect every surface: desks, tables, seats and seat backs, door knobs, he said. Back in March when schools first shut down, they were doing this with spray bottles with a bleach solution.

He says his school has enough cleaning solution to get to or through the winter, though that's probably not true of other schools. "If I have to, I'll go buy a bottle of bleach. Or I'll get $25 from my coworkers and go to Costco and get a case.”

The task at hand seemed enormous, he said.

"We're trying to wrap our minds around it ... are we going to get extra hours, extra man power?” he wonders. “We're going to try to do our thing, best we can."

Any thoughts on what the head of the union and a Brooklyn custodian stated?