Muir Closed Today Because of Norovirus

 Update:  Tweets from SPS:

The building is clean and ready for students, but many staff and students still sick.

John Muir Elementary will be CLOSED on Friday 3/10 in an effort to limit further spread of germs.

end of update

I received word that Muir Elementary is closed today due to a discovery of norovirus at the school.
The district has brought in a team to clean the surfaces of the entire school.  No word yet on when it will reopen.

Talking with union officials, I learned that SPS has one of the lowest standards for cleaning schedules for school districts in the state.  The custodians are on a timed scheduled for each room and only put up chairs and vacuum/sweep.  They are not required to wipe any surfaces and only dust about six times a year.

I'm sure most teachers pick up the slack if only for sanitation but that's not really what we want to be paying them to do.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hmm. Sounds like we need an executive director of school cleanliness. I hope central admin gets on hiring that position.

JadedBeyondBelief
3/9/17, 8:45 AM
Dave W. said…
In place of yet another FTE at the palace, a few funds to hire interested school year employees to sanitize EVERY school at least once a year has been the union's proposal.

Like they say: "everybody wants to build but nobody wants to maintain" a healthy learning environment.
3/9/17, 1:43 PM
Anonymous said…
Seattle Public Schools is extremely understaffed with Custodial help. Currently we have 2 Mobile AA or substitute Licensed steam engineers when we should have at leas 15. During the summer months our schools run several programs Launch/ CDSA and Powerful Schools, as well as Odessa Brown Fitness camps and Jumpstart kindergarten program, which means that our schools are occupied with students and staff year around. It is very difficult to keep a building up to standards with those events, and a minimum staff of 2 Custodians in an elementary school. We need help and more Custodians like yesterday. Our union has asked for additional help, with hiring our cafeteria workers in the summer as additional help but we have been reduced to hiring only two cafeteria workers as gardeners and maybe one Custodian for 97 schools? This is the reason our schools are unsanitary because the additional help we need to fully clean them properly simply isn't there... Thanks! CH
3/9/17, 2:31 PM
n said…
They don't put up chairs. Not one at my school. And we deliver the garbage to the door. It is a mostly male union and it is much stronger than any other union. They used to clean desks and chairs in the summer. I haven't seen that lately. Everything is dirty.

I like my custodians but to think they do a good job cleaning is fantasy. I've told this story before and I'll tell it again - an excellent substitute cleaner from downtown said if you don't clean at Stanford you get fired. He said that because I commented on how well he cleaned my room. I guess Stanford is special.
3/9/17, 6:24 PM
n said…
And please don't hire one more level of management! :)
3/9/17, 6:25 PM
Another Name said…
Sometimes children are used to serve food on the lunch line. Cleanliness- anyone?

3/9/17, 9:15 PM
Another Name said…
Students are forced to sit in groups, too. They cough into each other's faces.
3/9/17, 9:16 PM
Dave W. said…
Local 609 is made up of over 70% women and minorities. Desks and chairs were cleaned in summer by "summer help" which has been cut in the explosion of administrative jobs downtown. No, chairs are not put up as teachers are expected to ask students to do that. JSCEE actually has a LOWER cleaning schedule than schools.
3/10/17, 5:52 AM
Dave W. said…
No one has been fired for not cleaning downtown.
3/10/17, 6:04 AM
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