Care of Schoolrooms

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 6, 1909

Care of Schoolrooms

WE are asked from time to time for detailed information relative to the care of schoolrooms; what the best treatment is for floors, walls, and desks. Below is given the regulations governing the work of the janitors of the Boston schools. We will gladly publish the regulations of other school communities if they are sent to the editor.

In the Boston schools the floors are of rift hard pine, in some instances of maple. Materials used for cleaning are washing-powders, soda, ammonia, sulphonaphthol, formaldehyde, oxalic acid crystals; the brushes, Russian bristle; the brooms, best corn; hard and soft soap.

In a few schools oil has been used on the floors, to the satisfaction of teachers and pupils. Muriatic acid is used for cleaning toilets, urinals, etc.

In sweeping, janitors shall use sawdust dampened with water and a suitable disinfectant, and once every two weeks shall cover all floors with sawdust, wet with a solution of formaldehyde, which shall be swept up before it becomes dry. Basements shall be swept once each week, or as often as may be necessary to keep them in good condition. Staircases, corridors, and rooms occupied by kindergartens, manual training, or evening classes, or for lectures, shall be swept daily; other rooms, including closets and dressing-rooms and assembly halls, twice each week, once by Wednesday night and again on Saturday. Floors paved with marble, slate, or terrazzo shall be washed as frequently as may be necessary to keep them clean.

Wainscoting, dadoes, window-sills, window-shades, moldings, hand-rails, furniture, and radiators shall be dusted every morning before the opening of school. Pictures, casts, shelves, walls, and ceilings shall be dusted as often as may be necessary to keep them in good order. Cloths shall be used for dusting, in preference to feather dusters.

Yards, walks, and outhouses shall be examined daily, and kept clean and in good order.

Chairs and desks shall be washed once a year, and those occupied by pupils who have contracted a contagious disease shall be thoroughly washed with a solution of formaldehyde.

Door-knobs and hand-rails shall be washed with a solution of formaldehyde at least twice each month.

All painted and varnished woodwork, oil-painted walls, dadoes, and wainscoting shall be thoroughly washed each year.

Windows shall be cleaned twice each year; namely, during the April vacation, and again during the last week of the summer vacation. Additional compensation, to be determined by the board, will be allowed for cleaning windows at other times during the year, which cleaning must be done only by direct authority of the schoolhouse custodian.

Sanitaries shall be flushed with water at least once each day, and kept thoroughly clean and disinfected. Urinals shall be washed with soda, potash, or diluted muriatic acid.—Selected.