Conducting renovations and remodels in your school is important when you need to replace certain materials, fixtures, or components. When it comes to your bathroom, you’ll need to use the right materials to ensure that they’ll be able to last in the sometimes-hostile environment that a school restroom can be due to the moisture and humidity. This is especially true when it involves your toilet partitions.

Here’s a quick guide to choosing the right bathroom partitions for your school.

Choosing a Stronger Material

When it’s time to replace your toilet partitions, you’ll want to make sure that you’re using a strong and durable material that can withstand the elements, as well as rough handling. Phenolic is a commonly used material for toilet partitions because they’re sleek, light, and has a strong screw retention. However, due to the light frame of Phenolic, it can endure some surface damage, so you’ll want a stronger and more reliable material.

Combatting the Restroom Elements

School restrooms are almost always moist, which can have drastic effects on your toilet partitions. Due to the constant humidity, the inner paper-core can become drenched. Over time, this can begin to sprout mold, which can lead to foul odors and lead to respiratory issues. Once mold growth is spotted, the entire partition needs to be replaced. To stay ahead of this, you’ll want to find a material that is solid all the way through and can’t absorb the moisture.

Reducing the Cost of Maintenance

Excessive maintenance on your restroom partitions is never fun. Whether you’ve to tighten the screws, adjust the hardware, or paint over graffiti regularly, you’ll notice that the costs and the man hours go up. Choosing a reliable material that can help you reduce your maintenance costs will not only save you money, but the materials will essentially pay for themselves after a few years.

Keep Privacy in Mind

Privacy is always an important factor when it comes to restrooms. Most toilet partitions leave certain areas exposed through door gaps and open spaces at the tops and bottoms of the stall. These sightlines can effectively be avoided by using more privacy-oriented toilet partitions.

Using HDPE Plastic Partitions

When it’s time to get serious about getting the right partitions for your school, HDPE plastic is always a reliable material to use. This solid plastic provides a more durable structure that can stand up to humidity, moisture, and graffiti. There are plenty of styles and options that can be customized to fit the décor of your school’s restroom. HDPE plastic partitions are guaranteed to last for up to 25 years, which saves you on replacement costs. You can rest easy knowing that you’ll have reliable, durable, cost-effective, and sustainable toilet partitions in your restroom.

When it’s time to consider new toilet partitions, go with an option that will not only exceed your expectations, but one that will last you the years. Want to learn more about HDPE toilet partitions and styles? Check out this FREE eBook, Choosing Bathroom Materials¸ from your friends at Scranton Products.

The lockers in your school are important because students need a space to keep the materials for their studies. It helps to have a designated storage space to house these materials when they’re not being used. If the lockers in your school are starting to show signs of wear and damage, it may be time to consider updating them. There are several ways to tell when it’s time to update your school’s lockers, so here are a few tips to help you know when it’s time to decide.

Dealing with Considerable Locker Damage & Wear

Lockers aren’t exactly treated gently. It seems a student’s preferred method of closing their lockers is by slamming them shut. Not only can this damage the door with nicks and dents, but it can also damage the hardware that keeps the door on the frame. Lockers endure a decent amount of wear over the years, so it’s important to routinely check the lockers to be sure that they’re in suitable shape.

The metal lockers in your school not only get scratched and dented over the years, but they’re also susceptible to rust. This is especially true in locker rooms. With the excessive amount of humidity and moisture, it makes it an ideal scenario for rust to appear on your lockers. Rust removal is effective, but time consuming and it can also lead to high maintenance costs.

Check out our Tufftec lockers here.

Graffiti is Constantly Showing Up

Graffiti is a common problem in all schools, especially middle school and high school. Bathrooms walls and stalls are often preferred canvases for budding graffiti artists. However, lockers are also a popular spot. In order to remove the graffiti, you’ll need to repaint the locker. Not only will this bump up your maintenance costs, but it can lead to VOC (volatile organic compound) emissions in your school. When there’s offensive graffiti present on your lockers, your hands are pretty much tied.

The Cost of Maintaining Your Lockers Keep Getting Higher

Tufftec Lockers in grey two-tonesUsually, the final straw for knowing when it’s time to update your lockers is when your maintenance costs have reached an all-time high. Instead of enduring these costs, as well as the time spent on maintaining your lockers, you should seek out a more cost-effective solution. This can allow you to not only update your lockers, but you can use this time to utilize a better material that can withstand the elements that have worn down your current lockers.

Check out our Duralife lockers here.

Replacing Your Lockers with HDPE

When you’re looking for a lasting replacement for your lockers, using HDPE plastic has its advantages. Not only is this solid plastic durable, but it can endure moisture and humidity in your locker rooms. Another important thing to know about HDPE is that it’s non-absorbent, so when there’s graffiti present on its surface, it can be easily wiped away. What may be the biggest advantage of using HDPE lockers is that they’re designed to last and are 100% sustainable, making them a long-lasting and eco-friendly replacement for your school’s lockers.

Want to learn more about HDPE plastic lockers and how they can benefit your school? Check out this FREE eBook, The Ultimate Guide to HDPE Plastic Lockers, from your friends at Scranton Products.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the air inside your facility may have two to five times more pollutants than the air outside. In some cases, that number is over 100 times more. Given the fact that most people will spend roughly 90% of their lives indoors, it’s important to make sure that indoor air quality remains high.

There are few places where indoor air quality is more important than inside educational institutions. That’s why, in this post, we explore the importance of indoor air quality and how it can be improved inside your school.

How Serious Are Indoor Air Quality Issues?

The EPA, in conjunction with its Science Advisory Board, has named indoor air pollution as one of the top five environmental risks to the public’s health. Maintaining good indoor air quality is an important factor in helping schools to achieve their primary goal of educating students.

Pollutants that affect indoor air quality can also lead to long- and short-term health problems for both students and faculty. This can include anything from headaches and coughing to, in rare cases, dangerous conditions such as carbon monoxide poisoning.

But even allergens such as dust or pollen can lead to medical issues, especially for those suffering from asthma. According to the EPA, asthma is the leading cause of school absenteeism due to chronic illness.

To keep attendance and performance high, it’s important that your school has a good indoor air quality.

Solutions for Indoor Air Quality Issues

Having a quality HVAC system is vital for maintaining good indoor air quality inside your school. However, that’s not the only solution for your indoor air quality issues. There may be other factors contributing to the level of pollution inside your school, and unless these issues are dealt with, you’ll only be solving part of the problem.

One common cause of poor indoor air quality is the thoughtless selection of products and materials to be used in the school. Synthetic building materials, for example, can increase the level of indoor air pollutants, as can housekeeping supplies like cleaners and other chemicals.

To limit the number of air pollutants, you should use products that have limited effects on the environment as well as human health. Products that use recycled materials are good as well as products that strive to conserve water and energy.

High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is a great option when selecting building materials because of its zero volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions rate.

Using HDPE to Improve Air Quality in Your School

HDPE is a strong and naturally germ-resistant material that resists scratches, dents, rust, corrosion, mold, mildew, and graffiti. It can be used in a wide variety of applications, including bathroom partitions, lockers, shower stalls, and bathroom vanities. However, the main benefit that schools can gain from using HDPE is improved indoor air quality.

At Scranton Products, our HDPE products are GREENGUARD Gold Certified, meaning they’ve been rigorously tested and proven to exhibit important safety factors, making them suitable for use in schools and healthcare facilities. They’re made from recycled materials and contain no harmful VOCs.

Learn more about our HDPE and why it’s the best material choice for bathrooms and lockers.

Starting the New Year off with a few goals in mind is always a good idea because it allows you to move forward and improve yourself and your work. However, you can also inspire your school’s faculty members to do the same. Some of these goals can be self-improvement, but a few should revolve around the students and the school. Setting New Year’s goals for your school faculty members can help invigorate a team spirit, especially when the goals are aligned.

Here are a few tips and suggestions for New Year goals for your school faculty members:

Improve Your Work/Life Balance

Stress is always a great thing to avoid and being overworked is one of the major causes of stress. Instead, you can take steps to improve the balance of work and home life in a few easy steps. If you bring work home with you, plan out a schedule that has a stopping point so you can relax. A happy teacher almost always leads to happy students. This also applies to those working and learning virtually.

Be More Accessible to Your Students

It’s important to be available to your students, especially if they have any questions about the material, class, or assignments. Some students may have anxiety about raising their hand or asking questions during class time, so be available for a few minutes after class to address any questions or concerns about the material you just covered, so they can prepare for any tests, quizzes, or upcoming assignments.

Lead Your Students by Example

Setting a good example for your students is necessary to help them aspire to be better. This can cover a variety of topics on the importance of self-reliance, working together, or even self-improvement. Whether it’s maintaining a healthy diet, being active, or going green, it’s important to set good examples for students to follow so they can do the same.

Create a Fun & Nurturing Environment

The environment has shown to have an effect on a student’s ability to learn, whether it’s in-person or virtual. There are plenty of ways that you can make your classroom more inviting and nurturing. You can include some indoor plants, which can help purify the air in your classroom. You’ll also want to make class fun and exciting. Laughter helps release serotonin and endorphins, which can improve blood flow to the brain and improve engagement, memory, and concentration. When the classroom is fun and engaging, you’ll see improvement in participation, test scores, and overall grades.

Inspire Students to Get Involved

School is where students start to formulate their plans for the future, whether it’s the career path they want, where they want to go to school, and even develop their passions and interests. Encourage students to get involved somehow. Highlight some of the interesting after-school clubs that are in line with students’ interests, so they can further develop their skills to achieve their goals for their future.

Want to learn more about how to improve your school environment for students and faculty? Check out this blog post, Issues Impacting School Administration: Issues & Solutions, from your friends at Scranton Products.

There are a few issues to be expected throughout the school year that an administrator must act in order to find and implement the solution. These issues cover a variety of factors within the school, and as an administrator, you’ll need to do everything within your power to correct them. Some of these issues may be out of your control, but adapting and learning how to solve these problems can be beneficial to you and your school.

Creating a Safe Learning Environment

As the administrator of a school, it’s your job to make sure that you’re proving a safe and secure learning environment for the students. A student’s environment can affect the ability to learn and retain information. Take the time to transform the uninspiring hallways and classrooms into a location that a student can not only thrive in, but one they’ll look forward to attending every day. They’ll be excited and ready to learn.

Bracing for an Enrollment Boom

A sudden and noticeable increase in students can make any administrator nervous, but the important thing is to remain calm and simply keep your head high and roll with the punches. When budgets are cut and schools close down, students get transferred to the next closest school. If that happens to be your school, you’ll want to find ways of bracing for the congested hallways and crowded classrooms. This could include hiring more teachers and administrators, as well as investing for mobile classrooms.

Combatting Absenteeism

When the winter comes, so do the colds, flu, and other ailments that keep students from coming to school. You can help reduce absenteeism by including hand sanitizer stations throughout the school’s entryways to combat the spread of germs. Most germs are spread in bathroom, so you can help reduce the spread of germs by executing a disinfectant cleaning plan, and installing stronger materials like HDPE plastic partitions, which ward off mold and bacteria growth.

Dealing with Student Vandalism

When you walk down the halls and see instances of vandalism, it’s never fun, especially when there’s graffiti all over the walls and lockers. You can combat graffiti in a few ways. Utilizing HDPE plastic lockers and toilet partitions can help because this material doesn’t absorb paint. When there’s graffiti present, all it takes is a light cleaning to rid the locker of unwanted graffiti.

Facility Maintenance & Operations

Depending on how old your school building is, you may want to institute a maintenance plan of action. Check the HVAC systems before the weather becomes more severe, and inspect your water system to make sure the water pressure is suitable. Be sure that these systems are operating at their most efficient, so no major issues will occur throughout the school year.

Are you looking for more ways to combat the common issues facing your school? Check out this blog post, Where School Facilities Are Falling Behind: Improve Your Infrastructure Report Card, from your friends at Scranton Products.

Nurturing the artistic side in students is important. However, when that art becomes graffiti, it can become a major issue for a variety of reasons. Not only can graffiti be vulgar and offensive, but it can also cost your school in repairs and maintenance. The important thing is to find a middle ground to help students channel self-expression in a positive way while reducing the amount of graffiti popping up.

Focus on the Arts

While it’s important for students to express themselves creatively, they need to do so on paper and leave the walls, lockers, and toilet stalls alone. Some of these “graffiti artists” may be enrolled in art classes, but sometimes, that’s not enough to help contain their creativity. After-school art programs can be very beneficial at keeping these students focused on creating artwork rather than vandalizing school property. When students have a creative outlet that they can focus on, they’re less likely to damage school property in an attempt of expressing themselves.

Meet Them in the Middle

There’s nothing more unsettling to a school facility manager or principal than to see a wall in a high-traffic area coated in spray paint or permanent marker. Regardless of what the image depicts or says, it wasn’t cleared to go up on the wall and constitutes as vandalism and destruction of property. However, you can meet them in a middle by instituting a mural arts project for the school.

Get an art teacher to oversee the project and help the students come up with an approved image. They’ll be able to work together and put it up on a wall in your school. Not only will this channel their self-expression in a positive way, but they’ll learn while working in a team-oriented environment. The end result is a beautiful display in your school that can be appreciated by the students and faculty and invoke school spirit and pride.

Taking Preventative Measures

There are a number of ways that you can prevent students from painting graffiti in your school. If there are areas in the hall that see a lot of unapproved artwork popping up, positioning a security camera towards the wall can help reduce graffiti from popping up. Students won’t want to risk getting caught to face the punishment for their artistic expression.

Lockers and toilet stalls are also frequent targets for graffiti. Luckily, you can replace your lockers and partitions with HDPE solid plastic. This durable material features an exterior coating that can prevent the plastic from absorbing the paint. Should graffiti appear on these lockers and toilet partitions, you won’t have to repaint any of them because graffiti can be easily wiped away. Installing HPDE plastic in your school can greatly reduce the risk of graffiti showing up on your lockers and toilet stalls.

Want to learn more about how to handle graffiti in your school? Check out this blog post, How to Implement a Zero-Tolerance Policy to Graffiti Vandalism, from your friends at Scranton Products.

As a facility manager of a school, you’ve got a lot to keep up with in terms of maintenance. However, one of the most important areas to focus on are the bathrooms in your school. There are a variety of factors that can contribute to the drop in quality of your bathrooms, but there are a few ways that you can stay ahead of the elements and keep your bathroom in great shape.

Factors That Affect Your School’s Bathrooms

The bathrooms in your school may be the most visited areas of the entire building, which means that you’ll need to stay on top of cleaning and maintenance to ensure that everyone walks away with a pleasant experience. However, the first step towards keeping your bathroom in great shape is identifying the factors that affect your school’s bathrooms.

  • Unpleasant Odors. There are a few reasons why your bathroom has a distinct and unpleasant smell, but the first step is identifying where the smells are coming from before you initiate a plan to rid your restroom of these odors.
  • Dirty Floors & Vanities. No one likes to see excessive dirt and crud on the floor, especially in the bathroom. Countertops and bathroom vanities are also known to collect dirt, so executing a thorough cleaning plan is important.
  • Low Water Pressure. If your water pressure is low, it can add stress and aggravation to the bathroom experience. Be sure that the sink and toilet water pressure are up to your standards.
  • Mold Growth. Over time, your bathroom will begin to sprout mold because the humidity and moisture create an environment where fungus thrives, and foul smells are present.

Execute a Heavy-Duty Cleaning & Maintenance Strategy

Make a plan to clean your school’s restroom vigorously on a regular basis—and not just sweeping the floor and throwing away any paper towels that didn’t quite make it into the trash. You’ll want some anti-bacterial cleaning products to meticulously clean the restroom. This can help combat the smells and bacteria that are growing. You’ll also want to regularly check your facility’s water pressure to be sure that the water in the sink and the toilet flushing are up to par.

Stop Mold in Its Tracks

Earth Toned Bathroom interiorYou’ll be able to spot mold sprouting in the corners of your bathroom, but that’s not the only place it can grow. Often, mold begins to sprout inside toilet partitions that have an inner core. The kraft paper interior stays moist due to the humidity in the bathroom. Over time, the mold will begin to take over. Once mold has grown inside these partitions, it’s difficult to clean and salvage the partitions.

However, you can stay ahead of mold growth and put off on replacing your partitions repeatedly. Using HDPE plastic partitions can help ward off mold because this solid plastic doesn’t feature an inner core that can absorb moisture. Installing HDPE plastic partitions has a variety of benefits: they’re easy to clean, mold won’t grow, and they outlast most other materials.

Picking a Long-Lasting Solution

Having a solid plan to regularly maintain your bathrooms is important. You’ll want to take the necessary steps that you’re combatting the elements, preventing any mechanical issues, and warding off mold and bacteria. HDPE plastic partitions can aid you in a number of ways, from preventing mold growth within your stalls, reducing the foul odors, and having a material that can last a long time to stand up to the factors that affect your school’s restrooms.

Want to learn more about HDPE plastic partitions and how using the right materials can help you maintain your school’s bathrooms? Check out this eBook, Choosing Bathroom Materials, from your friends at Scranton Products.

As a facility manager of a school, nothing is as stressful as ridding an area in the school of recently applied graffiti. There can be debates of what constitutes as art, but there’s no denying that graffiti is vandalism. While art should be left in the classroom with washable materials being used, you’re tasked with finding ways to combat this problem and ensure that it doesn’t continue. You’ll need to implement a zero-tolerance policy to graffiti vandalism in your school.

Here are a few steps on how to work towards stopping graffiti from popping up in your school.

Communicate with School Administrators About the Costs

As the facility manager of the school, you don’t have any disciplinary sway with the students, so you’ll need to address these issues to the administrators and/or principals. Remind them that graffiti is not only an act of vandalism, but it’s costing you money and time with maintenance. If they can come up with a disciplinary plan that can thwart students from marking up the walls and other components in your school, you’ll begin to see a drop in “artwork” from appearing in your school.

Focus on the Problem Areas

The most common place that you’ll find graffiti is on the toilet partitions. Students with graffiti aspirations use these stalls as their springboard because it’s enclosed and private. However, you can stop graffiti in its tracks by utilizing the right materials for your bathroom.

HDPE plastic toilet partitions are resistant to graffiti. They won’t absorb any paint or permanent marker. Once any mark is made, it can easily be wiped away without having to invest in some fresh paint to coat over the graffiti.

Take Away the Graffiti Hotspots

This step requires you to think like a graffiti artist. You need to look out for easy targets, like blank walls, and even elevated areas that can be viewed by everyone in the school. To combat the students’ desire to tag these spots, beat them to the punch and paint the walls with a darker color that makes it less appealing to spray an image or phrase on.

Update Your Lockers

Lockers are another target area for students to mark up. Since most lockers are made from steel, you’ll have to repaint them once graffiti pops up. However, HDPE plastic can also be used for lockers. This will save you the cost and time that goes into painting, all while updating your schools lockers with a strong, durable, and graffiti-resistant material.

Utilizing HDPE plastic materials has a wide variety of benefits. When it comes to combatting graffiti, these lockers will help you save money and time on maintenance because they resist paint. Once graffiti appears on any HDPE locker or partition, it can easily be wiped away. Want to learn more about HDPE plastic and the many benefits there are to choosing it for your school? Check out this blog post, Why HDPE is a Super Material, from your friends at Scranton Products.

 

 

 

Flu season can be a tough time of the year for school facility managers. Finding ways to combat the spread of germs

is easier said than done, but the important goal to keep in mind is to provide students with a safe and healthy environment to learn. The flu and germs can be easily spread in a school setting due to the many surfaces that are constantly touched, shared items, and the sheer number of students that could be ill. At times, it almost seems like an uphill battle. However, as a facility manager, there are several steps that you can take to help reduce the spread of germs in your school during flu season.

Inspect Your Water System

As flu season rolls in, you’ll want to be sure that your water system is in great shape. This not only means changing the filters to directly reduce any possible germs, but you’ll want to make sure that the actual water flow systems are functioning properly. During flu seasons, teachers are expected to stress to their students the importance of washing hands to avoid getting sick. This means that the faucets in your bathroom will be getting a lot of use, and that by functioning properly, it’ll allow students to wash their hands and help prevent the spread of germs.

Clean & Disinfect

Due to the many contact surfaces in your school, there’s no doubt that they’ve accrued their fair share of germs. During this season, it’s important to ramp up your cleaning schedule. Be sure to properly disinfect lunch tables, lockers, water fountains, door handles, and any other point that gets touched by many people throughout the day. By properly disinfecting any contact surfaces, you’re doing your part to greatly reduce the spread of germs and the flu.

Install Hand Sanitizer Stations

Hand sanitizer is one of your best friends when flu season rolls around. Even if a portion of the student body utilizes hand sanitizer, there will be a significant drop in student absences. You can put hand sanitizer pumps in bathrooms, the lunch room, and any administrative office. However, you may also want to invest in a hand sanitizer stand in high-traffic areas like major staircases, the library, and anywhere where there are computers. Shared computer keyboards are often a hotbed of germ spread, so be sure to combat it by offering hand sanitizer for students to use after they use the computer.

Reevaluate Your School’s Lockers & Toilet Partitions

Believe it or not, your lockers and toilet partitions can have a pretty significant part in the spread of germs. Toilet partitions can absorb moisture and sprout mold, and both partitions and lockers are touched frequently by many students throughout the day. Keeping up with sanitizing these components can prove difficult, but instead of regularly cleaning and sanitizing, why not replace these components with a better material that can resist the absorption of germs?

HDPE plastic—available as toilet partitions, lockers, and storage cubbies—provide a secure and stable structure that can stand up to the spread of germs. The surfaces are non-porous, so no bacteria will be infiltrating the inside of this solid plastic. HDPE plastic is also highly durable, and can actually resist scratches and dents. The biggest benefit of HDPE is that this material is low-maintenance and only requires a light cleansing, as opposed to the other materials that require vigorous scrubbing.

Would you like more information about keeping your facility in tip-top shape? Download our free commercial restroom cleaning checklist now!

As a facility manager of a school, you’re familiar that during cold and flu season, the halls may be a little less crowded. In fact, most students contract sicknesses while at school, so you’ll need to take the necessary steps to reduce the spread of disease in your educational facility. However, MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) has become a common problem in schools. This bacteria can be spread in a variety of ways, but the best way to prevent it from spreading is to stop it at the source: locker rooms and restrooms.

How MRSA Actually Spreads

MRSA is spread by contact. Whether a student comes in contact with an already infected student, or they’re in the locker room handling athletic equipment that hasn’t been properly cleaned, the spread of MRSA is an ever-present threat. This is especially true in high-risk areas, like your school’s locker room and restroom, because of the atmosphere is usually ripe for bacteria growth and spread.

Signs & Symptoms of MRSA

When someone is infected with MRSA, they’ll begin to show signs. MRSA usually appears in the form or bumps, pimples, and boils. Infected individuals will also appear to be red, as well as warm to the touch. Unlike most skin irritations or signs of swelling, the boils that are present due to MRSA can result in a lot of pain to the infected student. The bacteria usually stays in the skin. However, in some cases, it can find its way deeper into the body, resulting in potentially life-threatening infections to organs, bones, and even the blood.

How to Reduce the Spread of MRSA & Protect Students

As a facility manager, the only way you can really prevent the spread of this bacteria is by ensuring that you properly clean and sanitize the high risk areas. However, no matter how hard you clean, the risk of MRSA may still persist because certain materials, like your lockers or toilet stalls and partitions, may already be beyond the point of no return. You may want to consider replacing some of these materials for a stronger, more reliable and secure alternative.

Most lockers are made of steel, and locker rooms (and restrooms) deal with constant moisture and humidity, which can cause rust and even help exacerbate the spread of mold and bacteria. Most toilet partitions are made from a thin plastic and have a paper core interior. However, this inner core can absorb the present moisture and begin to sprout mold and bacteria.

It may already be too late for your current lockers and toilet partitions to be thoroughly cleaned and be cleared of any bacteria. However, it’s not too late to replace your stalls and partitions with a better material like HDPE plastic. This solid and durable plastic is impenetrable, so mold and bacteria can’t contaminate the interior. This plastic just needs a simple cleaning with some sanitary products to be free of bacteria and moisture. Implementing HDPE lockers and partitions in your school can reduce the amount of sick or absent students.

Are you interested in learning more about HDPE plastic materials and how they can help you keep your school secure and free from the spread of bacteria? Check out this blog post on how you can prevent bacteria growth on bathroom partitions, from your friends at Scranton Products.