San Juan College, Farmington, N.M., one of the top five community colleges in the state — serving 15,000 students on four campuses — cares, and its ICARE (Innovation, Collaboration, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence) mission denotes how its 43 workers in three shifts maintain 675,000 cleanable square feet in a healthy cleaning regimen.

According to Robert “Bob” Richey, custodial supervisor, San Juan College: “One of our goals is to break the ‘circle of infection’ and protect community health by continuously working with and training staff in better methods using the right equipment to foster hygienic outcomes.”

Richey — with Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) and Cleaning Industry Training Standard (CITS) Accredited Cleaning Trainer (ACT) Certifications — equips custodial staff to perform high-performance, healthy cleaning using innovative tools such as:
 • Kaivac spray-and-vac machines, deployed by specialists to deep clean 120 restrooms
 • KaiFly microfiber-applicator trowel and squeegee systems, enabling “window-cleaning- quality” outcomes on desktops and 1,000 campus whiteboards; widening the cleaning swath from “palm-sized” to 18 inches and boosting productivity by 30 percent
 • KaiWipes disposable wipes bought “dry” by the case to which a non-irritating EPA-registered, hydrogen-peroxide solution is added; teachers and students dispense wipes from refillable plastic canisters for sanitizing throughout classrooms
 • Kaivac microfiber towels that optimize cleaning over cotton cloths.

“The first step is training hires on the Kaivac equipment as both productivity and soil removal are amazing,” said Richey. “The Kaivac systems enable rapid cleaning and near-total removal of organic soil, as shown by post- cleaning ATP (adenosine triphosphate) numbers.”

The Kaivac tools also help enable meeting healthy cleaning goals while simplifying prep for — and cleanup after — frequent events held in popular campus venues, including three auditoriums.

The college uses the performance enhancement software program TrakStar to help meet individual goals, assess progress, share accountability and achievement using employee self-appraisals, fostering a culture of collaboration with, and respect for, each worker. While specific goals — e.g., worker mastery of the employee manual, CITS, and related training — are mandatory, Richey urges workers to set personal goals and log and monitor their own achievements.

The college’s sustainability efforts have enabled reaching green goals by earning LEED Certification in several buildings, but overall San Juan College has achieved facility excellence goals in large part because it cares about better learning environments and healthy cleaning.