by Danny De Leon, Facilities Manager
Welcome back all you San Francisco Day Schoolers! We have had a very productive summer in our facilities department: fixing up the school, adjusting our procedures, and refining our policies. A number of the changes are obvious and some are not. Below I will review our new policy changes and share some of the summer highlights.
Policy Changes
Policy changes that are underway include new security procedures for parents and staff, lost and found policies, and housekeeping.
New Security Firm
This summer we bid farewell to our old security company and guards, Parthenia Williams and Herbert Barker. Herbert decided to retire from his post and is doing well, managing his apartment building. Parthenia will continue to serve the School in the mornings, helping supervise the children.
Our new security company, DN Security, provides services at several San Francisco independent schools. They come to us with a wealth of experience and knowledge of school operations. Our consultant at DN Security has helped us implement some new policies that will help create a safer environment for our community. Beginning in the fall, parents, contractors, and regular visitors will be asked to don badges. Other visitors will be asked to wait in the lobby until escorted by their host faculty member.
DN Security will also assist in traffic management. During arrival and dismissal, those parking in the white zone will be expected to stay with their cars and will be asked not to enter the building. Through this measure, we hope to improve street-side vigilance for traffic management.
Maintenance and Custodians; Sanitation and Green Cleaning
Say hello to the new economy! This year you will see me running around the school in ‘civies’ once a week. Our maintenance and custodial staff has shrunk from five members to four. While some maintenance work will be outsourced, I will make sure that things transition smoothly by donning my New Balances and pitching in.
The custodians are being retrained in the art of green cleaning. We have moved away from our traditional line of cleaning products to a new line that is more earth friendly. SFDS has enlisted the help of a consultant to train our custodians and day porters to properly use our new green cleaners. Furthermore, they are being trained and instructed to conduct sanitation measures with a new green disinfectant:. All desks and countertops will be disinfected daily; door knobs and common area surfaces will be disinfected throughout the day; and Clorox Disinfecting Wipes canisters will be wall-mounted in strategic locations throughout the school to help building users clean surfaces as needed.
Lastly, our consultant will perform late evening inspections to ensure that our measures are being properly implemented.
Housekeeping
In keeping with our heightened cleaning measures, we are going to impose a strict two week Lost and Found policy. Every two weeks, all Lost and Found items will be donated to a local charity. Furthermore, we will impose a policy that ALL clothes, shoes, etc. must be put into a locker, taken home nightly, or hung up on a hook. All paper, books, and clothes left on the floor will be put into the Lost and Found. Food items will be thrown away. Again, Lost and Found items will be donated every other Friday, regardless of the day that they arrived in the Lost and Found. These policies will be reiterated to the upper school students during Advisory.
Summer Highlights
- Both art studios received a much needed makeover, complete with storage shelving and room layout changes. We hope this new layout frees up the creative energy in those rooms. We can’t wait to see the kids’ faces when they see the changes.
- Both second grade classrooms and the Mac Lab were outfitted with SmartBoards.
- The Mac Lab retired its iMacs to make room for this year’s new models.
- The elusive rooftop playground leak (over the music room) was dealt its final blow in an epic showdown between south facing driving rain and Stucco. We are confident that this will do the trick, but will continue to monitor the situation.
- Theatre lighting and sound hostilities finally quelled with ground loop isolation resolution. We think that we have finally found the sonic SFDS ghosts in in our gym’s sound system.. We have also made the system more user-friendly by installing some new features, includinga lock on the sound panel room, some new wiring to replace old (and unsuitable) sound cable, and new controls (with labels!). We can’t wait to hear the students sing our praises.
- The lower school playground received some safety improvements. We installed a new playground mat beneath the monkey bars; an (emergency use only) wireless external phone system, and a corner mirror to help the grown-ups monitor the nooks and crannies of the playspace.
Phew! So, you can see it has been another busy summer. We are excited about the new school year ahead. Throughout the year, we are hoping to accomplish more cleaning, fixing, and painting over our school breaks to help keep the building feeling fresh.
