For Jen Todderud, back-to-school season has meant back-to-back virtual meetings.
As Lebanon Community School Corporation's communications director, Todderud has served as the district's point of contact with the public as it consults with health departments to handle the novel coronavirus.
"We've been put in a place," Todderud said, "where we're trying to be public health experts, too."
As K-12 students return to classes this fall, district officials have consulted local, state and national health department guidelines to develop cleaning procedures for school facilities. The need to strike a balance between a positive learning environment and safe conditions have put pressure on both families and school officials working to develop an action plan.
"We're learning more about (COVID-19) every day," Todderud said. "It's a brand new scenario that nobody's ever really encountered before."
School districts around the area have anticipated updating their routine cleaning schedule since the state's first reported case in early March.
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For Lebanon Community School Corporation (LCSC), Todderud said the district began cracking down on sanitizing in February. Todderud said the district's Buildings + Grounds Department divides a cleaning crew who sanitize LCSC facilities day and night.
"We really started changing that schedule," Todderud said, "to make sure that (the crew members) were hitting those high-touch and high-traffic areas more frequently."
Classroom cleaning procedures
Along with custodians and cleaning staff, teachers are also expected to help in cleaning of common spaces. Different school districts are equipping faculty with personal protective equipment (PPE) and stations for when materials run out.
LCSC, like many others, is giving teachers control over individual classroom cleaning procedures.
Todderud said no students in their district will be expected to participate in the sanitizing and disinfection of other public spaces like cafeterias or playground areas.
Here's what to know: About your kid's school's cleaning procedures
"A kid might be asked as part of a normal classroom procedure to wipe down their chair for the kid sitting there after," Todderud said. "But it'll all be up to the teacher's discretion."
Efforts to keep schools coronavirus-free have also prompted school districts to create reopening plans that introduce new technology into their facilities.
John Christenson, professor of clinical pediatrics at IU's School of Medicine, said in addition to finding new ways of sanitizing schools, enforcing basic hygiene practices among staff and students should be a priority.
"Plain water and soap, that's a good place to start," Christenson said. "There should be plenty of that available and places for people to be able to dry their hands. That's the most important thing."
Christenson said though most commercial disinfectants are safe for use around children, officials should double-check items as higher demand for sanitizers has allowed methanol-contaminated products to enter the market.
"Every school has to see where they got their products," Christenson said. "Methanol is not something that you want to have on the hands of anybody, but you definitely don't want to have it on any surfaces."
Cutting-edge technology
Common equipment and sterilizing agents listed on Central Indiana school districts' reopening plans include electrostatic sanitation, backpack sprayers and EPA-approved disinfectants. A few, such as Lebanon, have included Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) 13 filtration systems and ultraviolet light (UV) sterilization.
Though the EPA or CDC doesn't have enough data to show how effective UV light is at killing the coronavirus, Christenson said hospitals have used this technology as a sterilizing agent for years.
"(UV light technology) is effective, but you have to have them in the classroom," Christenson said, "and you have to have a certain distance between the device and the area you're trying to disinfect."
Some filtration systems, like Merv-13, work at removing germs from the air, but Christenson said more research needs to be still unclear whether any filtering can stop the spread of COVID-19 in schools. Most U.S. schools closed before data could determine how effective this method is, he said.
"We really don't know how well this operates in a school system and how effective it will be in reducing transmission of coronavirus in a school because it hasn't been done," Christenson said. "Time will tell."
As the state of the pandemic changes each day, Todderud hopes everyone stays patient as LCSC "irons out" the final details of its reopening plan.
"Normal is probably still a little ways off because even when our kids come back, it's not going to look like it did this time last year," Todderud said. "We're doing everything we can to not only make it a safe place but make sure our families feel like it's a safe place and help them feel confident in their decision to return back to school."
Contact Pulliam Fellow Tiana Woodard at twoodard@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @tianarochon.
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'We're learning more every day': Coronavirus prompts changes in school cleaning routines - IndyStar
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