NEW ROCHELLE, NY — With all the talk about disinfecting schools, it is worth noting that the City School District of New Rochelle has been at the forefront of best practices and the use of state-of-the-art technology for more than three years. The changes were implemented under then-Assistant Superintendent for Business & Administration Jeff White after he terminated the District’s contract with Aramark and hired and in-house facilities team under former New York State Facilities Director Carl Thurnau.
WATCH VIDEO: Disinfecting New Rochelle Schools – Evaclean product demo 2018 at Trinity Elementary School
The custodial staff, under the direction of Thurnau and Assistant Director of Facilities Keith Watkins, implemented a new program that uses high-performance cleaning accessories and tools such as water-saving microfiber cloths. They use vacuums with specialized scrubbers and floor pads with Orbio-generated solutions, rather than wet mops and dirty buckets. These practices have greatly improved air quality. Another recent enhancement is the addition of spray applicators with an electrostatic function that helps the disinfectant adhere to even hard-to-reach areas.
Even as students, staff and visitors enter the school, they cross new entrance walk-off mats that have been shown to remove 80 percent of outdoor dirt, preventing it from entering the school in the first place.
“The district now is ahead of any other by implementing such processes in every school,” said David Migden, principal of Sterling Sanitary Supply, a District consulting vendor. “Floor surfaces are cleaned with auto scrubbers that use electrically charged, ionized water, which cuts the tap water needed by 70 percent. Other surfaces are cleaned with the solutions generated by the Orbio os3.” These measures eliminate 95 percent of conventional cleaning chemicals, saving the administrative costs of buying the chemicals along with the expense of transporting them.
The disinfectant spray uses water and PUR:ONE tablets, a fast dissolving concentrated tablet that dissolves in water. It is the first chemical with an EPA registered kill claim against bacteria present in biofilm. It is a powerful cleaner and disinfectant having sporicidal grade disinfection in a safe and effective formula for workers and surfaces. PUR:ONE can be applied with a mop, spray bottle, and micro-fiber. It is used as the first step of the EvaClean program to effectively clean, disinfect and kill bacteria in biofilm in 4 minutes.
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