GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — On Monday some students finally returned to in-person learning at Green Bay Area Public Schools for the first time in nearly a year.
As a result of having both teachers and students back in the classroom, the district is reassuring they’re doing everything they can when it comes to cleaning and disinfecting to mitigate any risks for Covid-19.
“We are doing additional cleaning. So we are cleaning throughout the day, where we go in and disinfect the bathrooms throughout the day. Cafeteria tables are wiped down. And then at night we bring our night crews in to do cleaning up in all the classrooms that are used throughout the day,” said Mike Stangel, Green Bay Area Public Schools Executive Director of Facilities.
He said teachers are all provided with disinfectants, so that as students leave the rooms they can spray and sanitize the desk tops, table tops, and door handles.
Stangle describe disinfecting can be done in several ways at the schools.
"We have disinfectant in spray bottles, we have electric static sprayers we use in larger areas and we have them in wipes. We have hand sanitizers in every room all over the place,” Stangle said.
He also also wanted to note there is a difference between cleaning and sanitation.
”When you're cleaning something you put a cleaner on it and you wipe it off right away. When you sanitize it you have to actually let the sanitizer sit on the surfaces, stay wet for a certain amount of time to actually kill any viruses and germs,” Stangle said.
He said they have sent out cleaning and sanitizing instructions to all of the district’s schools of what needs to be cleaned and wiped down.
And for the situations where it may be hard to stay six feet apart, Stangle says they have a solution.
“We also provide a lot of plexi glass shields to our buildings so that students that cannot sit six feet apart we can put shields in between them,” Stangle said.
