NEW WESTMINSTER—CUPE 409 President Marcel Marsolais said that reinstating daytime custodians during the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the important work they do, not only for those attending or working at child care learning centres in schools, but for everyone.

“Custodians are the unsung protectors of the K-12 sector,” said Marsolais. “They are integral in keeping schools healthy and safe for all students, including vulnerable children, and our staff. Now they also support the children of health care and other essential front-line workers in schools.”

Custodians are well-trained in the procedures and protocols developed by districts to keep schools safe. Front-line staff, including clerical support staff, monitor who is coming into each school, where they are and when then leave. Custodians then clean and disinfect areas that have been used so they are safe for the next set of users. They regularly disinfect desks and high-use surfaces.

Daytime custodians have always taken care of students and staff in schools. As well as cleaning desks, bannisters, railings and door handles, they also clean and maintain washrooms; empty garbage; patrol and pick up broken glass and dangerous debris from the school grounds; and help with school functions like assemblies.

Marsolais notes that custodians who work while school is in session provide an educational benefit to students and help build respect for ensuring students’ learning environments are safe and secure.

“I’ll bet most people can remember the name of their custodian when they went to school,” says Marsolais. “Kids build relationships with their school custodians.”

As schools gradually open, custodial work will be increasingly important in each district as more students and staff return.

“The bottom line is that custodians need to be in schools during this pandemic and need to be kept there whenever schools are in session,” said Marsolais.

“Union lobbies for return of daytime custodians in New West schools”, Julie MacLellan, New Westminster Record, April 30, 2020.

“Are BC Schools Clean Enough to Reopen?”, Katie Hyslop, The Tyee, May 4, 2020.

VICTORIA—Dr. Bonnie Henry speaks to educators and support staff about physical distancing in schools in a video released yesterday.

The PHO recognizes that schools will require flexibility when it comes to providing school care and learning opportunities. This means that there can be more than 50 students and staff in a school at any given time if they are not all in one area at the same time and are actively engaged in physical distancing to the extent possible. Understandably, physical distancing is challenging in a K-12 educational setting, particularly with younger children. At the same time, it is important that we do what we can to try to assist children and staff understand the importance of minimizing the frequency of physical contact with one another.

The following ideas on physical distancing in schools are provided by the BC Centre for Disease Control:

• Avoiding close greetings like hugs or handshakes and remind children to keep their hands to themselves when possible.
• Help younger children learn about physical distancing by creating games. For example, put on some music and have children spread their arms side to side and spin around slowly trying not to touch their friends. Older children can be provided age appropriate reading material and encouraged to self-regulate.
• Take children outside more often, perhaps breaking children into smaller groups to maintain a degree of distance.
• Organize learning activities outside including snack time, play based learning, and play time.
• Integrate cross-curricular learning activities in outdoor settings into your lesson plans and encourage younger children in play outside.
• Regularly clean and sanitize items that are designed to be shared such as manipulatives and digital devices.
• Set up mini environments within the school to reduce number of children in a group, i.e., set up 2 or 3 learning areas for numeracy and literacy activities.
• Consider different classroom configurations to maintain distance between children (e.g. separating desks) or different locations in the school (e.g. different classrooms, gym or library, outside).
• Increase the space between children and staff during activities such as snack/lunch, i.e., move or separate tables, move chairs farther apart.
• When children want to use the same activity or redirect some children to another area.
• Set up distinct areas for children who may have symptoms of illness until they can be picked up and ensure these areas are sanitized regularly.
• Consider staggering snack and lunch time so you can accommodate smaller groups with more space. Discourage any food or drink sharing.
• Consider using educational videos and online programs as a part of learning so children can sit independently and distanced from each other.

We were pleased to have a phone briefing with Dr. Trevor Corneil, a member of Dr. Bonnie Henry’s team.

In her Monday briefing, B.C.’s provincial health officer said that the province is now working on how and when classrooms might be able to reopen with the proper protections for teachers, staff and students. Protections include physical distancing measures, provisions for frequent hand washing, and regular cleaning of classrooms and other school spaces.

The priority will be providing classroom space for children of essential workers. 

Dr. Henry said that they were not thinking about school over the summer, but want to make sure that they have plans that address all of their issues for the fall.

The return to school could be part of a “hybrid” model that mixes in-person instruction with distance learning.

Dr. Henry expects some children will be back in class before the end of the school year, but how that will look is still being discussed.

View a PDF of the bulletin.