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August 18, 2020

Huntley High School custodian Pablo Hernandez takes a turn at spraying tables with an electrostatic cleaning machine during training earlier in August. The district purchased 11 units, for $2,965 each, to cover high-touch surfaces with disinfectant proved to kill the coronavirus. Although school is slated to start without students in the building, custodians will continue to use the machines in high-traffic areas.
Gavin Maliska
Huntley High School custodian Pablo Hernandez takes a turn at spraying tables with an electrostatic cleaning machine during training earlier in August. The district purchased 11 units, for $2,965 each, to cover high-touch surfaces with disinfectant proved to kill the coronavirus. Although school is slated to start without students in the building, custodians will continue to use the machines in high-traffic areas.

News • August 18, 2020

Schools turn to tech to kill COVID-19

By

Teachers re-entering District 158 schools to prepare for the Aug. 21 beginning of remote learning may find the buildings as clean as they have ever been.

The school district purchased electrostatic cleaning machines that will spray chemicals designed to kill the coronavirus. The electrostatic feature of the gear makes the disinfectants cling to all sides of surfaces like lint clings to a woolen sweater.

And while students won’t be crowding cafeterias any time soon, the machines will be used to battle COVID-19 as teachers return to the building, according to Dan Armstrong, District 158 communications director.

The district spent $2,965 each or more than $35,000 total for 12 EMist EM360 Electrostatic Disinfectant Sprayer systems. The gallons of disinfectant they will spray is extra but will likely run more than $100,000 for the year to clean more than 1.5 million square feet of buildings, according to district Chief Financial Officer Mark Altmayer. There will be one machine for each building, one for transportation and two spares.

Earlier in August, Doug Renkosik, the district’s director of operations and maintenance brought together custodians from all nine of the district’s schools for a training session on the machines. Custodians watched a video from the manufacturer, then demonstrations by employees of the distributor before taking the machine for a spin on cafeteria tables at Marlowe Middle School.

The custodians learned the machines were battery operated and would last for three hours on a one-hour charge.

“You’ve got to be really careful with this machine,” Renkosik told his workers, “because if it breaks we’re doing it by hand.” The devices being demonstrated were floor-based but the district has purchased backpack kits to allow the custodians to be more portable.

The chemicals chosen as disinfectants are on the Environmental Protection Agency’s “N List,” indicating that tests have shown the chemical kills COVID-19.

When students return and traffic through the schools increases, a separate shift of custodians will be brought in to disinfect high-touch surfaces, cafeterias and bathrooms before high-traffic periods, to keep students, teachers and staff safe.