Episode 7 - Return to School Facilities Preparation with Mr. Randy Miller

SHOW TOPIC
Return to School Facilities Preparation

SPECIAL GUEST
Mr. Randy Miller, Seneca Valley Buildings and Grounds Director

Mr. Randy Miller comes to Seneca Valley from the corporate sector where he worked for three and a half years as a project manager for FedEx Ground Corp. in Moon Township. During his time there, he was responsible for managing the development and design of facilities, sites, buildings and material handling systems for expansions and new hubs/stations for the entire gulf region. His additional experience includes 25 combined years with Architectural Innovations, Eckles Architecture; and Richard N. Manns, Architect P.C.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW
• Measures to ensure the building is clean and safe to welcome staff and students
• Protocols to clean, sanitize and disinfect buildings - and ventilation protocols/procedures to maintain staff and student safety
• Processes to procure adequate disinfection supplies meeting Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) requirements for COVID-19
• Plans for how and when staff will train on cleaning, sanitizing, disinfecting, and ventilation protocols
• Methods for measuring the results of cleaning and disinfecting

USEFUL INFORMATION
www.svsd.net/ReturntoSchool
www.svsd.net/FacilitiesRTS
www.svsd.net/SchoolEnvironmentRTS

Transcript

FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)

Voices E7 Randy Miller

File Name: Voices E7 Randy Miller.mp3

File Length: 00:14:34

SPEAKERS

Int - Introduction

JK - Jeff Krakoff

RM - Randy Miller

00:00:02:24 - 00:00:07:24

Introduction: Welcome to Voices, a Podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District.

00:00:10:24 - 00:00:17:12

Jeff Krakoff: I'm Jeff Krakoff here with Randy Miller who is Seneca Valley's Buildings and Grounds Director.

00:00:17:14 - 00:00:18:26

Jeff Krakoff: Thanks for joining us today

00:00:19:06 - 00:00:20:04

Randy Miller: Morning.

00:00:20:07 - 00:00:50:25

Jeff Krakoff: I know you've got decades of experience from working with architectural firms, to working as a project manager at FedEx Ground, and the building of facilities around the country. And you've been here in your current role at Seneca Valley for a couple of years now. So a big question on everybody's mind is what do we do during this pandemic as we go back to school to make sure the buildings, the grounds, are clean and safe and welcoming for everybody.

00:00:50:27 - 00:00:51:12

Randy Miller: Yeah.

00:00:51:14 - 00:00:53:29

Jeff Krakoff: Just give us an overview what what the plan is.

00:00:54:01 - 00:01:28:04

Randy Miller: Sure. That's the that's the million dollar question and that's my number one priority is to ensure our buildings are safe and clean for our students and staff. Absolutely vitally important that we disinfect the buildings regularly. This is of course most most to combat and stop the spread of the COVID-19. The district has purchased several misting machines that we will be utilizing to disinfect all the areas in each building every night.

00:01:28:09 - 00:02:04:23

Randy Miller: All of our Seneca Valley School District maintenance and custodial staff are currently being thoroughly trained on the proper method and use of these disinfecting misters. And we also are having our outside cleaning companies utilize these machines every night again to assure that we're getting every you know 100 hundred percent of our buildings and rooms disinfected and ready for our students and staff to come back into these buildings and be able to feel safe in knowing that we're doing everything possible to assure that we're we're clean and safe.

00:02:04:25 - 00:02:12:02

Jeff Krakoff: OK, so in addition are there other protocols in addition to the misting machines?

00:02:12:04 - 00:02:56:27

Randy Miller: Yeah. Basically we're gonna be doing is we're going to utilize a two-step process the first step is gonna be to clean the areas. And the second step will be to disinfect. As you may or may not know there is quite a bit of difference. You hear people discussing cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting. The disinfecting is going to be as I said earlier our number one priority. And the biggest difference is cleaning, you're basically removing the dust, debris, dirt from a surface either by scrubbing it, washing it, or rinsing it off. Sanitize sanitizing will reduce the bacteria on the surfaces, but the disinfecting that destroys or inactivates both bacteria and viruses on these surfaces.

00:02:56:29 - 00:03:09:09

Randy Miller: And again number one priority. The disinfecting of these hard non-porous surfaces is one of the most reliable ways that we can help lower the risk of spreading these germs through the surfaces and through touch.

00:03:09:15 - 00:03:16:25

Jeff Krakoff: Okay. Are there any changes just from ventilation, air movement standpoint taking place as well?

00:03:17:13 - 00:03:48:29

Randy Miller: The the district actually commissioned a mechanical engineer to do a districtwide study. We have various types of mechanical systems in each of our buildings. We are a large district. We have several buildings, nine in fact, seven schools. So we commissioned the study to have them take a look at what we can do from the HVAC standpoint. So we've actually looked into increasing the amount of outside air that comes into each room.

00:03:49:03 - 00:04:30:09

Randy Miller: Diluting that. Higher filtration using higher Merv rated filters. There's also other types of things that we can add on to that we are considering. UV lights in a room or in a unit ventilator cabinet where it will actually attack and destroy the virus in air. Bipolar ionization is another thing that showed up on the study. There that they gave us probably about four or five different things that we can do. The stuff that we're going to implement immediately is the filters, more frequent changing, the adding of outside air filtered air.

00:04:30:15 - 00:05:10:11

Randy Miller: There's there's still a lot of discussion I'm still doing more research on. You know in your home you want to get fresh air and you open your window, you go across the room or the house open up that you get cross-ventilation which is awesome. These are big buildings. Our systems are designed to bring the outside air in through our systems and filter it. So I'm still doing some research on you know is it simple enough to just open a window to get that outside air? I prefer not to bring in other additional humidity, additional allergens, and our units are going to be trying to work to meet the set point that that set for that room.

00:05:10:14 - 00:05:42:26

Randy Miller: And by opening a window that could overstress our units. So the jury's still out on that. I'm going to do more research, but the other thing we are going to do is we're going to set our controls so that our units are on two hours prior to the arrival of students and staff and two hours after they leave. And that's going to get a lot more air changes. It's going to go a lot more diluted outside filtered air to help make the air in those rooms and in our spaces cleaner and fresher.

00:05:43:23 - 00:05:47:13

Jeff Krakoff: It's a lot more complicated than meets the eye.

00:05:47:15 - 00:06:13:17

Jeff Krakoff: So I I am aware the CDC, OSHA, there are certain requirements for having adequate disinfectant supplies as anyone who's gone out to a retail or looking for disinfecting products. They're hard to find. What are you doing to make sure. Right. How many. What what volume of supplies do we need at a school district? And how do we make sure we have enough?

00:06:13:22 - 00:06:21:27

Randy Miller: That's actually when we first started this our administration led by Dr. Vitale and we started doing the

00:06:23:14 - 00:06:58:20

Randy Miller: COVID task force and things like this when we were first hit with this back in February and March each of the directors each of departments were directed to look at what you're going to need. What will we need? At the time you know we needed disinfectant, we needed wipes. We need it. There's all different things, now it's to another level because we were looking to see at that time we were hoping to be able to get students and staff back into the buildings, as we all know that did not happen. So from that point forward, my challenge has been finding the suppliers.

00:06:58:22 - 00:07:29:07

Randy Miller: And we do have suppliers that we work with. Every year with getting these types of supplies. Now it's just it looks a little different. We're buying a lot more disinfectant. We're buying misting machines that allows us to disinfect these areas more efficiently. So I've been working directly with all of our suppliers and you know what the procedures are going to be. They gave me lead times and basically I gave them a deadline of you know we were originally going back to school on August 26.

00:07:29:09 - 00:07:59:18

Randy Miller: That what I needed it a week before. That way I didn't want anything to fall through the cracks and we get it too late. With now with school actually physically being in buildings being September 8, right now at about 90 percent of everything that we need. One of the delays for a while was the misters. I was getting concerned with if we were gonna have those misters. They're key because it more than it takes about 30 percent of the amount of time to disinfect the room what a mister

00:07:59:20 - 00:08:30:07

Randy Miller: than it does with a hand spray. And things like that so by the by Friday of this week we will have 100 percent of our supplies and materials ready to go. I also have to be careful and make sure that we're getting the safety data sheets that does assure us that it meets OSHA, CDC and the Department of Health guidelines and our suppliers who again I'm very confident in what our suppliers provide us. That is one of my tasks I tell them every time.

00:08:30:09 - 00:08:48:07

Randy Miller: Make sure this meets everything because if it doesn't I can't accept it. So they've been great to work with they've been working overtime. They probably get tired to hearing from me because I call them every day for an update. It's that vital we can't move forward if we can't have these buildings safe and clean for our students and staff.

00:08:48:09 - 00:09:07:22

Jeff Krakoff: I'm glad to know we are prepared. So you know you've got the protocols, you've got the equipment, the supplies. I'm sure it's like everything else that then falls on training. How do we make sure that everybody's doing what they need to do once they're in the buildings? What kind of staff training will there be?

00:09:07:24 - 00:09:41:16

Randy Miller: Well many may not realize but we have we have staff, district employees, that are our maintenance and our custodial personnel. And then we have outside cleaning companies that we have come in to do the majority the classrooms and things like that. So there are several moving parts here, but one thing we have done is we've already the training is already underway and by the end of next week everybody will be thoroughly trained on how to use the misters, the proper two-step process that we're talking about.

00:09:41:20 - 00:10:11:20

Randy Miller: We have a checklist sheet that we pass out so every room there's checklist items that they have to follow so that we're doing the same protocols, the same process and then we have supervisors, we have team leaders in each building that will go back through just to kind of take a look and make sure we're following those proper procedures and that we're getting the desired result of cleaning. And again our number one priority thoroughly disinfected. We're already planning for you know

00:10:13:09 - 00:10:52:09

Randy Miller: absenteeism I mean there's a good chance that we're going to have people that are showing symptoms or they might just have the common cold or flu and not able to make it into work. Well, that is detrimental to me and my crews because we're one man down, two man down, three man. That could be. So the communication between all of those folks, outside cleaning companies, our personnel. We had a meeting with everybody about a week and a half ago. You know early early August and I went through the process of we have to have clear communication if we have somebody that is absent, that calls off, that had to leave,

00:10:52:26 - 00:11:21:06

Randy Miller: I need to know that, my supervisors need to know that, so that we can pivot and get somebody there. And I've told them there might be times where they see me doing it if I need to. If we have someone. Every morning when our students and staff arrive they need to know that those rooms, everything has been disinfected. We'll find a way to get it done if I have to move people, because of absenteeism-it's going to happen. But we will be sure to get and disinfect every single room.

00:11:21:08 - 00:11:32:04

Jeff Krakoff: So how do you ensure that that happens. You know what. How are you measuring the results so that you know that the cleaning and disinfecting is to the standards?

00:11:32:06 - 00:11:35:03

Randy Miller: The misting, the way it is,

00:11:35:05 - 00:12:03:23

Randy Miller: these are chargeable units and the misters actually put it into the air and it'll attach to pretty much -you don't have to be perfect- and that's what I really liked about the misters. When you're using hand sprayers it's all on the user; on where you're directing it where you're spraying it. We're basically, it's almost like fogging, you know you get in an area you start in the middle you work your way you start hitting areas that misting it becomes an aerosol just like the virus.

00:12:03:26 - 00:12:04:11

Jeff Krakoff: Right.

00:12:04:13 - 00:12:09:17

Randy Miller: It is able to get attached to pretty much every every every nonporous surface.

00:12:09:19 - 00:12:10:04

Jeff Krakoff: Got it.

00:12:10:10 - 00:12:32:11

Randy Miller: So that is. And it took a while before we decided on what type of delivery product we were going to use whether it was going to be a backpack, whether it was going to be hand san, whether it was going to be wipe downs, the misting really was the most efficient and provided us the most confidence in it was getting everywhere in that room.

00:12:32:13 - 00:12:36:19

Jeff Krakoff: Well you know it works when you see on TV it's being used on airplanes it's being

00:12:36:21 - 00:12:37:12

Randy Miller: Oh absolutely.

00:12:37:14 - 00:12:38:13

Jeff Krakoff: hospitals

00:12:38:16 - 00:12:39:06

Randy Miller: Absolutely.

00:12:39:08 - 00:12:51:08

Jeff Krakoff: Yeah, it sounds like a great choice, great method. So, any last thoughts you'd like to leave any parents listening as it comes to making sure that the buildings are safe for this fall?

00:12:52:00 - 00:13:09:21

Randy Miller: Just know that you know my department, buildings and grounds, my supervisors, my staff, our outside cleaning companies, we're parents too. I've had kids come through the district. I continue to live in the district. There's nothing more important than that safety.

00:13:09:25 - 00:13:10:10

Jeff Krakoff: Yeah.

00:13:10:23 - 00:13:23:03

Randy Miller: It's a tough time. Fortunately for me my my kids have you know graduated and moved on. They're adults now. It's a tough time. Know that we are doing everything we possibly can.

00:13:23:06 - 00:13:53:24

Randy Miller: We're getting. No. No stone is being left unturned and in terms of trying to figure out a way to come back and make this safe. If I could assure you that nothing was going to happen I would. But, that's why they call it a novel virus. None of us has any idea how this is going to be affected, but know that even if even if we do have anything that's a positive, we have plans in place to get in and disinfect a room, a wing, an area a building in real-time.

00:13:53:26 - 00:14:10:28

Randy Miller: It will be taken care of. It will be disinfected. And hopefully, they can take comfort in knowing if they make the decision to send their kids to school. Seneca Valley School District is doing everything in their power to make sure these rooms are safe, clean and disinfected.

00:14:11:00 - 00:14:16:08

Jeff Krakoff: All right. So Randy Miller, buildings and grounds director at Seneca Valley, thanks so much.

00:14:16:10 - 00:14:23:12

Jeff Krakoff: Thanks for you and your team for being so thorough and so thoughtful in all of this and good luck as we reopen in the fall.

00:14:23:14 - 00:14:24:28

Randy Miller: Thank you so much, appreciate it.

00:14:25:00 - 00:14:25:21

Jeff Krakoff: Take care.

00:14:25:23 - 00:14:26:07

Randy Miller: Have a good morning