West Virginia

Despite the fact that it's unknown what public school attendance will look like this fall in West Virginia, custodians at one of the state's schools are working hard to help keep students and staff healthy should they return.

Several dozen custodians in Marshall County, West Virginia recently gathered for an educational seminar of sorts in which they received heavy facility maintenance training, reports The Intelligencer.

Instructed by the facility support sales manager at a local distribution company, the custodians learned some proper cleaning techniques and about the new tools they will be receiving to help them get the job done. The seminar lasted about six hours.

The facilities director for the county's schools says custodians are being trained so that their normal routines change in a way that better helps protect students and staff from disease and illness like COVID-19. Some of the focus was placed on correctly identifying the differences between cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting -- terms that the cleaning industry in general seems to struggle defining.

The director says there will be a "significant increase" in the work the custodians do, yet the all the specifics of what that work will be hasn't yet been finalized. Right now, the county is following instructions being provided by state officials.

The director did say that the amount of area and surfaces covered by acts of cleaning, disinfecting and sanitizing will increase considerably in the schools. He says desks and tabletops have always been targeted, but table legs, railings and door handles will get the attention they deserve.

With the 2020-2021 school year fast approaching across the United States, it will be interesting to see what other schools will do to prepare for their kids.