The school year starts and before you know it, summer is upon us again. No matter how much educators and administrators love their jobs, this time of year finds us all counting down the days to summer break. While summer offers a break for students and teachers alike, the heavy lifting is just starting for your school cleaning service. When the kids clear out until late August or early September, it is the perfect time for your janitorial services company to attend to needed school cleaning and maintenance, getting your school back to the clean, healthy, optimal learning environment your students and staff deserve. Ahead, learn how you and your janitorial company can make the most out of summer break in order to get your school in peak condition for the first day of school and the coming school year.
School cleaning over the summer functions much better if it is planned and coordinated. Without a plan, September comes quickly and you don’t want to get to the start of the new school year with important maintenance still uncompleted. You and your school cleaning company should create a plan in order to utilize the summer break most efficiently. This certainly benefits your school but it also affords you the opportunity to hold your school cleaning company accountable the work and plan you both agreed to. Everyone should be on board with what the priorities are, a critical path should be created that makes sense given the needs of your school taking full advantage of near empty campus and classrooms.
Your school’s floor cleaning, detailing, waxing and refinishing top the summer school cleaning priority list as with few people in the building, it’s a great time to attend to major floor cleaning and maintenance. Floor cleaning can be disturbing to the school learning environment and oftentimes, weekends just aren’t ideal times for building maintenance. So summer offers an ideal time to strip, clean and reseal floors. We all understand that Michigan’s weather and your heavy student traffic means flooring takes a real beating. Periodic deep cleaning and maintenance like carpet cleaning, floor stripping and resealing is necessary to extend the life of your flooring protecting this costly business asset.
After your building’s flooring, second on the list for a deep cleaning are your school’s restrooms, which get a lot of use throughout the school year. The restrooms on campus are often areas that need some extra attention to get them back in shape. Summer offers an open window to give this area some deep, much need cleaning and attend to any needed repairs. It can be prudent for your school cleaning company to deep clean grout and drains, clean and remove gum, graffiti and worse from the stall doors, clean or touch up walls, clean ceilings, clean and repair vents and light fixtures, as well as make any other needed repairs.
Want to know the general state of your school cleaning? Look at the janitorial closet. Ideally, you should see a clean and organized closet, with appropriately labeled supplies and safety materials, clean mops and mop heads, well maintained equipment and a system of storing things that makes sense. What you shouldn’t see are dirty towels, dust, soiled mop heads full of hair and dirt, soil left in mop bucket, unlabeled cleaning supplies, and broken equipment. If your janitorial closet leaves something to be desired, it’s likely time to talk to your school cleaning company about getting their act together. Not only is a well organized janitorial closet good preparation for effective school cleaning, it’s the safe and healthy way to do business.
The overall condition of your janitorial closet and cleaning equipment is a fantastic predictor of the overall level of service you are getting from your school cleaning company. When vital school cleaning equipment isn’t adequately cleaned, maintained and stored or is of an overall low quality, it might be time to request that your cleaning company up their game. Your school cleaning company doesn’t have to have every new tool and gadget but overall, better equipment leads to better, more efficient and effective school cleaning services.
Summer offers a great time to attend to issues that perhaps could not be managed during the school year because they were potentially too disruptive. Similarly, summer offers a near perfect time both get caught up and work ahead on other building maintenance projects. Preventative maintenance, on systems like HVAC, plumbing and electrical, offers a workable, budget conscious way to minimize failures that would otherwise disrupt classes and learning during the school year. Engage your maintenance provider asking that they inspect your school for potential issues and address them before they become disruptive problems.
Does your school cleaning company have an effective green cleaning program? Is it meaningful? Does your commercial cleaning company have an energy reduction plan? Green cleaning assertions should be backed up with real training and confirmed results. Green cleaning isn’t just about green cleaning chemicals, it’s about practices and methods and as such, it requires training in the specifics of green school cleaning.
Is it time to think about contracting with a new Michigan school cleaning company? If so, there are some things you should know to help you evaluate prospective school cleaning companies. What things will make or break your school cleaning services? Your janitorial services company should:
While it’s never an entirely easy transition, summers are a good time to train and work with a new cleaning company and their staff. Low risk and low stress time to get up to speed and work out the kinks before the new school year begins. Finding the right school cleaning service isn’t without its own headaches, still, taking the time to find the right company will save you time and money years to come.