As you leave school at 2:15 to go home or to practice for one of your many sports, staff members stay back to finish up their day. One part of our school staff in particular is doing something a lot different than how they used to. The NAI custodial staff has had to make many changes to how they clean our school during the time of the coronavirus. It’s no longer just the basic sweep of the floors and spray down the tables with water and soap, it’s now so much more in depth than that. 

As one of the new cleaning tools, the custodians use an electrostatic sprayer. Each night, the custodians go through the school and spray the lockers, hallways, classrooms, and cafeteria down with the contents of this new tool. “Every room, every hallway, every office, every night” said the head of the custodial staff, Mike Heiry. The sanitizing solution in the sprayer kills Covid-19 and other germs, and is also the same tool that they use to clean on planes.   

Lunch has changed a lot.  No more cramming eight people into a table that fits four. In the cafeteria it is limited to two people at one big table and one person per booth. The round tables have been replaced with desks which are six feet apart. The trash cans location has been changed form over by the doors to now spread out in the middle of the cafeteria. And the options for food have also gotten smaller and pre portioned into bags. 

You may have noticed that classroom vents are louder than last year. That is because in order to filter out the air faster, but the air filtration units at NAI are not made for that kind of filter. So in order  for the filters to work the systems need to be turned up from medium to high. “The univents aren’t quite rated for those [the high density filters], so we had to turn it up, which is why the classrooms are suddenly really loud.” says Mike Heiry. 

This is the first year where kids can eat in the auditorium for lunch. We were always told to not bring food or drinks in there but, this year that all changed. Due to the large number of students, while maintaining the social distancing guidelines, it is not possible for all of us to eat in the cafeteria. Eating in the auditorium sounds fun for maybe a day or two, however, for most people it’s not. No one wants to have to shout just to have a conversation with their friends but, sadly for now that is the case. 

At NAI this year, there is always a custodian in the building at all times. There are nine total custodians this year, and they are cleaning at all times. We no longer go into school on Wednesdays for the custodians to do their work. With the time they would usually spend cleaning the corners of the windows or dusting off the tops of the lockers, that time is now used to use the sprayer. 

Since germs can spread rapidly through water fountains, the school has had to put locks on them to prevent use. Water fountains could further spread Covid due to people drinking close to them, so they would have to take their masks off. Taking your mask off close to a large group of people is very dangerous, and it could spread the virus quickly. 

The electrostatic sprayer is filled with a 1 to 1 ratio of water and cleaning solution. The difference between this cleaning solution and just regular clorox wipes is that this solution grabs onto the virus and doesn’t just sit on top of the surface. It sinks into it and sanitizes it.