Wake schools will be cleaned more frequently, have more comfortable temperatures
Posted January 21, 2020 2:53 p.m. EST
Cary, N.C. — Wake County public schools will be cleaned more frequently and set at more comfortable temperatures for students and staff.
A Wake school board committee discussed the changes Tuesday and said the improvements are possible due to $2.5 million more in recurring funding from county commissioners and $1.5 million non-recurring money from the district's fund balance to cover one-time expenses.
School temperatures were previously set between 68 and 75 degrees. That will now change to 70 to 73 degrees, according to Greg Clark, Wake schools' senior director of maintenance and operations.
The school district will use the money to focus on the following areas:
- Frequency of school vacuuming & sweeping
- Frequency of stripping & waxing resilient floors
- Frequency of extraction cleaning of carpet
- Frequency of resealing gym floors
- Painting
- Resilient flooring & carpet replacement
- Landscape replacement & related maintenance
Changes made with additional funding include:
- Hardwood floor resealing now fully funded
- Hardwood floors to be resealed annually, district-wide
- Mowing frequency to weekly effective March 2020 (currently every other week)
- Mulching frequency changed from every 7 years to every 3 years
- Additional service contracts in place for HVAC to improve response time
- Additional service contracts in place for Kitchens to improve response time
Changes made with one-time 2019-20 funds include:
- Carpet extraction cleaning, district-wide
- Stripping & waxing resilient floors, district-wide
