Attempting to wipe out a rodent problem that threatens students’ health, Chicago Public Schools officials have ordered a “top-to-bottom scouring” of all of the district’s 600 schools.
The schools will be cleaned 100 at a time beginning Monday, starting with the ones that have had problems in the past or that are in old buildings.
From ceilings to storage areas, and basements to classrooms, no area will be left unclean, according to schools chief Arne Duncan. While food preparation areas are being cleaned, students will receive cold breakfasts and lunches from outside vendors instead of hot meals.
The cleanup effort is expected to take 8 to 12 weeks at a cost of $2 million to $4 million, Duncan said.
In the last several months, food operations were suspended at 13 schools because city inspectors from Mayor Daley’s Dumpster Task Force found droppings from mice and, in some cases, rats in school kitchens, classrooms, boiler rooms and even in ceiling tiles.
Duncan stressed during a news conference that there has been no evidence of food contamination at any of the schools.
He said principals have the ultimate responsibility for keeping a school clean and safe, but engineers, custodians, the kitchen staff and even teachers must be held accountable as well.
“All hands will be on deck,” said Sean Murphy, the district’s operations chief.
The cleanup is meant to allow all schools to start over with a “clean slate.” If problems persist, disciplinary actions may be taken against school officials and may include suspensions and firings, Duncan said.
`No excuse,’ Duncan says
Even though keeping schools free of rodents is a challenge, “there is absolutely no excuse for poor maintenance,” he said. “I am putting every school-based employee on notice today: If you can’t keep your schools clean, we’ll find someone else who can.”
As school staff members also will be receiving training on sanitation techniques and problem recognition.
On Saturday, Mayor Richard Daley expressed his outrage over the vermin while speaking to senior citizens on the West Side.
“I’ve asked the principals, the parents, the students, the engineers, the janitors to keep it clean–please,” he said. “It’s as simple as that. We all have to keep our homes clean. I have to keep the city clean. They have to clean the schools.”
Two city departments are now involved in the inspections: the Health Department, which conducts regular inspections at the schools, and Streets and Sanitation, which responds to rodent complaints through the Dumpster Task Force.
The recent rash of problems began in December with a rodent sighting in the Jewel parking lot near Lane Tech High School, said Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez. A trail of “rodent activity” led inspectors to the school and to more evidence of rodents. The cafeteria, which serves the largest number of students in the city, was then closed.
Sanchez said the problem is especially worrisome because of the diseases rodents carry.
“If we allow them to get to our food source, there’s a strong possibility we might get something they are carrying,” he said.
At Mather High School on the North Side, mouse droppings were found Jan. 14 in the food-preparation area, under the serving lines and in radiator grilles framing the cafeteria.
“It’s nasty,” said sophomore Jasmyne Howell, 15. In the last week she has become a regular at McDonald’s, braving the frigid weather to seek alternatives to the cold sandwiches the school was dispensing.
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Assistant Principal Douglas Gordon said the problems at the school reflect the reality of a building full of kids who munch on snacks and leave food around.
Officials said they would not open student lockers, where many students presumably stash food, as part of the cleanup effort.
At Mather, employees have been pulling the covers off the cafeteria heating vents, discarding insulation and filling possible inlets from the outdoors, according to assistant engineer William Prendergast.
“Any hole, crack, crevice, we filled them up,” he said. “If there are mice still in here, I don’t know how they’ll get out. We locked them in.” Spring and glue traps snagged about a dozen mice, he added.
13 schools closed
Officials listed 13 schools as recently closed due to rodent infestations: Lane Tech, Juarez, Bowen, Austin, Hope, Mather, Kelvyn Park, Englewood and Robeson High Schools; and McClellan, Ward, Cooper and Holmes Elementary Schools.
According to the school district’s health-inspection Web site, however, three other schools have failed inspections during the school year because of rodent problems. The site shows Barton Elementary failing Sept. 19, Marshall High School failing Jan. 5 and Chicago Vocational School failing Wednesday.
The Health Department took the lead in those inspections, said spokesman Tim Hadac.
He said that with both city departments working on school inspections, “It’s kind of like a one-two punch. One regularly does the patrolling and one responds to calls and hot spots.”
At Steinmetz Academic Centre Thursday, Principal Constantine Kiamos said he welcomes the cleanup effort. His school is among the first 100 to be targeted.
Kiamos said his staff has already worked hundreds of hours installing sweeps under doors, plugging holes in walls and cleaning every corner to keep the pests away.
“We’re doing the best we can,” he said.
Some students said discarded food tends to pile up in the lunchroom during the course of the school day.
“There’s food on the floor. They don’t sweep. That’s what causes rats and stuff,” said Steinmetz senior Ruben Santiago.
Don Moore, executive director of the education reform group Designs for Change, said the planned use of pesticides and poison baits is cause for concern.
“Their methods should be approved and monitored by an independent agency to make sure that there is no danger to children and staff,” Moore said.
Determining who is responsible for the cleanliness of schools is complex because a number of businesses often work in a single school.
Within the school district, three property advisers–Aramark, U.S. Equities and Sodexho Globetrotters–are responsible for the oversight of about 175 schools each. They are paid a total of $6 million per year for services that include coordinating repairs and mechanical systems.
District officials said the property advisers are under contract to inspect, manage and take care of pest-control matters for about 500 schools.
But David Miles, vice president of U.S. Equities, said his company is not responsible for maintaining cleanliness. He said the company does work with the school’s engineers and dispatch contractors, such as pest-control companies, to perform necessary work.
In schools that do not have property advisers, the school engineer does those tasks.