Custodians and HVAC: A School's Front Line by Dr. Michael Flanagan

Every school has its custodian. The guy that everybody knows by name. The same custodian who was there when the kids’ parents attended the school. The teachers, students and administration all know him—or her. In my school that custodian is... 

Ramon. 

In the fall, he is out there with the leaf blower. In the winter, he is on the snow plow before any of us even get to school. Before vacations, he is on the wax machine as we are walking out of the building. During the day, he drags that mop/broom thing through the classrooms while the kids are at lunch. After dismissal, he sweeps the piles of paper out of each room to form mountains in the halls. Mopping the bathrooms, fixing broken doors and leaking faucets, replacing lights and cleaning puke on the stairs are all in a day's work.

We take Ramon for granted. 

Custodians across the country have the huge responsibility of keeping students and faculty safe. And in this time of COVID with the pending reopening of schools we are taking it as a given that not only Ramon, but the thousands of other custodians will be there. That in addition to their usual responsibilities they will be continually risking their lives to clean, disinfect and sanitize our schools—and ventilation systems—to prevent students and staff from getting sick. 

This is an impossible task. Our custodians are clearly being set up to fail. 

School systems do not have a valid plan to reopen, because there is no legitimate reason to reopen schools during a pandemic. Custodians will never be able to do all the things that the CDC, the DOH, the DOE and all those other acronyms want them to do. They will never be able to prevent a deadly airborne virus from infecting people in a school building. 

Educators and politicians have spent so much time debating the merits of reopening schools, that they are glossing over the logistics. Mayors, governors and the president all make statements about safety and social distancing. About deep cleaning and the necessity of wearing masks. About hand sanitizer and hybrid learning schedules. 

But this disease is airborne. And all too many schools in this country are antiquated and in need of HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning) upgrades. 

Improper filters on HVAC systems can cause COVID to spread into the air ducts and throughout an entire school building. The Federal government estimates that at least 36,000 schools will need HVAC upgrades. Custodians are concerned that their older buildings will not have upgraded HVAC systems in time to keep people safe.

Even single unit air conditioners recirculate the same air within a room. And they usually do not have the type of filters that can stop COVID-19. ASHRAE (American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers) has developed recommendations for requirements to reopen schools, but they will never be met before the new school year begins. 

Custodial staffs will not have the manpower to do all of this additional cleaning. Beside Ramon, my school has four additional custodians responsible for maintenance, heating and air conditioning. That might seem like plenty to non-educators, but for some context, I would invite you to come to a school after dismissal and observe the amount of trash generated on a daily basis. We have custodians on a day shift and a night shift, who work all weekend and all summer, do their very best, yet the school is barely held together. 

How are they now going to constantly disinfect and deep clean on an almost hourly basis all surfaces and resources used by students and staff? Not only breathing in and working with these new chemicals designed to specifically address COVID, but by being around the highest trafficked areas of the school all day?

Custodians are the true front line workers in the schools.

Who is protecting them? The EPA provides information to maintain ventilation and filtration systems to prevent the spread of COVID. The AFT provides training and protocols for cleaning and disinfecting. The CDC gives guidelines on how to clean and disinfect schools. The NEA has advocated for the safety of custodians, which includes the necessary PPE for their protection. But will any of it actually happen?

Politicians are pushing for the schools to reopen regardless of the lack of infrastructure. It is inevitable that when their half-baked high risk plans ultimately crumble—and people contract COVID—they will immediately seek out a scapegoat to blame for the sickness and death. These politicians and our president will never take responsibility; they will pass the buck along to those who were set up to take the fall from the beginning. 

The custodians. 

Custodians feel abandoned by congress. Many are already being forced to work in violation of COVID regulations. They are our union brothers and sisters. In New York, they work for the Division of School Facilities, members of Local 891, the International Union of Operating Engineers. In 2016, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a contract that allowed the custodian union to work directly for the DOE. They are our colleagues, as concerned with the lives of our children as teachers and parents are. 

They can no longer be ignored in this debate. 

Educators have been resisting the calls to reopen school buildings until it is safe, and questioning the impossible procedures being put into place in order to claim that it is. We also need to remember that in addition to educators, our bus drivers, our food service workers, and our custodians are at equally high risk. 

In June, I went to school to assist with the “drive-thru” graduation. As I was putting away the “Congratulations Graduates of 2020” signs, I saw Ramon—in a white hazmat looking suit sweating profusely—taking a breath before he returned to the locker rooms to continue disinfecting. This is his “new normal.”  

We can not reopen schools until it is safe for all of us. #RefuseToReturn