CUSTODIANS ON THE FRONT LINES OF SCHOOL SAFETY

Armed with spray bottles of light-ink disinfectant, Stanford Elementary School custodian Lance Proehl sweeps through a classroom, hitting most every surface with a blast of cleaner. ¶ Desks, chairs, computer keyboards, light switches, door handles — if fingers touch it, Proehl cleans it. When he’s done, he fills out a door hanger noting the date and time the room at the northeast Las Vegas school was sanitized. ¶ With some students returning to the classroom in just over a week, the stakes have never been higher for the small army of custodians who keep schools clean and safe.

“We want to make sure that nobody gets sick here,” said David Longoria-Buffington, the school’s head custodian.

Clark County School District students, who have been out of the classroom for nearly a year because of the coronavirus pandemic, will start returning to schools March 1. Pre-kindergarteners through third-graders will go first, with older students expected to return later this year.

Staffers at Stanford are preparing for about 100 children to return in the hybrid, in-person model. They will be grouped into classrooms of around 10 students.

About half will attend classes on Mondays and Tuesdays and the other half on Thursdays and Fridays. On days students are not at school, they’ll continue remote learning.

Wednesdays will be reserved for cleaning.

That’s where the janitorial team will continue with their efforts, which is in addition to cleaning and sanitizing classrooms every night after students leave. Bathrooms will be disinfected at least three times a day.

Before the pandemic, the doors, light switches and sinks inside classrooms were disinfected on a daily basis. Now, desks, chairs, keyboards, printers and “you name it” will also be sanitized, Longoria-Buffington said.

A stronger disinfectant is used for deep cleaning sessions on Wednesday because that’s when no children will be on campus, and the building can be aired out. Another deep clean will occur Friday nights; the campus will be closed on weekends.

The crew will go through at least 10 bottles of disinfectant a day to clean the 55 classrooms and bathrooms. They are waiting to get backpack sprayers so they don’t have to

PHOTOS BY STEVE MARCUS Custodian Lance Proehl cleans a desk Feb. 12 at Stanford Elementary School. The custodial staff members at Stanford and elementary schools throughout the Clark County School District are in the process of disinfecting classrooms in preparation for students’ return beginning March 1.

Proehl fills out a door hanger to signify the classroom has been disinfected.