The Importance of Commercial Cleaning Companies in Schools

If you’re a school administrator, you’re probably on edge a lot. As you’re aware, teaching children and molding their minds is only part of your job. You’re part-time parent, counselor, nurse and a million other professions. On top of that, you also must make sure your students are protected from stranger danger, inclement weather and deadly and invisible germs.

We can help you on that last part. Stratus Building Solutions specializes in cleaning schools. True, we sanitize all sort of commercial properties, from office parks to car dealerships and churches. But school cleaning is a big part of what we do and given the importance and vulnerability of our youngest generation, we feel especially good about the work we do at schools and daycares – especially during the flu season.

Obviously, children can get sick anywhere, but if we have anything to say about it, they won’t pick up dangerous germs at school.

That’s an important mindset to have, particularly this latest flu season. According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the main viral strain being seen throughout the United States during this flu season has been especially tough on children – and this year’s influenza vaccine hasn’t been as effective at protecting kids as it has in years past.

All of this means that it’s more important than ever to keep classrooms as germ-free as possible.

You probably don’t need to be convinced of that, but you may be unaware of all the places a school is susceptible to a germ attack.

Some of the potential problem areas that your school should pay attention to include:

The floors. While it’s a given that you’re going to make sure floors are clean, during the winter, it’s especially important. Kids’ sneakers bring in road salt, which has toxic chemicals in it. Slush, snow and mud is tracked in as well, which means that essentially anything kids are stepping on are coming into your school. For instance, if a kid has stepped in something a dog left in the grass, well, that’ll soon be in your school. Yes, that’s gross to think about, but if we aren’t thinking about that, we aren’t helping our clients.

The bathrooms. Sometimes children don’t make it to a bathroom in time. Often, they forget to flush. Sometimes they get sick and use the toilet as a depository for what’s making them sick. Yes, it’s beyond unpleasant to think about what can happen in a school bathroom, and you probably don’t need convincing that the bathrooms need to be cleaned daily. You also likely have somebody on staff covering that.

Still, is a deep clean being done? Is your custodial staff cleaning the doorknob on the inside of the bathroom? It may look like the cleanest part of a school bathroom, but that’s what every kid – who doesn’t wash his or her hands after going to the restroom – touches on their way out into the hallways. What about the soap dispenser?

That little handle is being touched before kids wash their hands. Even a bathroom that looks clean may not be as clean as you think.

Classrooms. This is ground zero, of course, for germs. Although never as bad as the common areas of a school, such as the lobby, hallways and cafeteria, classroom floors still need to be sanitized, and so do desks. Even light switches and doorknobs, which are often touched, should be cleaned, and if you have carpets, those need to be thoroughly vacuumed. As you can imagine, a classroom carpet is full of dust mites  as well as dust, pollen and bacteria.

We could go on, but there’s something else that school officials need to remember in the fight against germs. The type of tools you use is very important. You really are, in a very real sense, going to war against these germs, and you have to be careful what you use or people can get hurt in the process.

What you use to clean your school, matters. As a green commercial cleaning company, we don’t use cleaning chemicals that can harm people. It can be easy to think that claims of toxic chemicals being bad for people to breathe in is a little bit alarmist – until you start seeing some of the results of that. For instance, last year, a fast food worker made the news in the worst way possible when he was overcome by cleaning chemical fumes and died – and two employees were hospitalized after improperly using a drain cleaner.

We’re an eco-friendly cleaning company for a lot of reasons. We don’t want to contribute to toxins getting into the ground water. We don’t want our franchise owners or their employees’ breathing in toxic fumes. We certainly don’t want our clients, especially little children, breathing in harsh chemicals. It may be several hours after a cleaning when children sit at their sanitized desks, but you nevertheless don’t want dangerous fumes to be lingering around. It doesn’t help anyone if, in an effort to keep kids from getting sick, your cleaning chemicals actually make them sick.

So, we hope you’ll continue teaching the kids and all the important work you’re doing – but use an eco-friendly commercial cleaning company such as Stratus Building Solutions to help keep the germs at bay. Let your students learn about bacteria and toxic chemicals by reading about them in a textbook – instead of in a doctor’s office.