Onsite School Staff Pandemic Protocol
All education and school staff are essential. Not all work needs to be done in the school building. If you have staff who have work that cannot be done via telecommuting, please consider putting some protocols in place. While things continue to change as we get more guidance, here are steps you can take now to protect yourself and others to the best of your ability, while still providing essential meals and education to our students.
1. If you have several employees on a team of workers who typically need to do at least some of their work onsite (custodians, nutrition services, communications, admin support, business office, leadership, etc.) consider having two or three small “teams” of staff that work, on different days, for example, to reduce the number of individuals that each person is exposed to.
2. Each person reporting for work should be self-monitoring for symptoms of illness. Post “Feeling Sick?” poster at workplace entry with instructions for any employees with symptoms of illness to contact a supervisor and not enter the workplace.
3. For school work/paper materials that must be physically picked up and dropped off, consider putting them in bins where they can be left for 24 hours without someone touching them.
a.The risk of catching COVID-19 from a package that has been moved, travelled, and exposed to different conditions and temperatures is believed to be low
b. Clean and disinfect the surfaces that can be cleaned (e.g. DVD covers, acetate book covers)
c. Remind staff that are working with these materials to not touch their face and practice hand hygiene, especially after handling
4. Clean and disinfect high touch surfaces in the work place often (e.g. counter tops, door handles, keyboard covers, phones).
5. Maintain strict adherence to mitigation strategies during all work that is done on-site, including during stages of food prep and delivery:
a. Physical distancing while at work (6 feet apart)
i. Consider using tape to measure out work stations for people working within a close space of one another
ii. Never 10 or more in one room/area
b. Non-medical face coverings (e.g. homemade cloth mask, bandana) may be worn while at work or delivering food. Although there is no official recommendation regarding cloth masks, it should be noted that this is not as a protection for the wearer, but it might reduce the chances of spreading infection if the wearer was infected but asymptomatic.
i. These face coverings can be used for an entire workday as long as they are not wet
ii. Care should taken to avoid contamination of surfaces when removing or handling the used mask.
iii. They should be washed before using again
c. Proper and frequent hand washing
6. For Nutrition and Food Service:
a. Prepare meals keeping in mind food safety such as refrigeration and cleaning protocols;
b. Ensure that all food preparation, packing, delivering is done by workers wearing clean gloves;
c. Bring meals to location where meals will be available for pick-up. Meals should be put down on tables, doorsteps, etc. to avoid directly handing the meals directly to students/family members. Meals may be available for pick-up at one of the following (students/family members should check with their school to identify the site they should use);
i. School or Neighborhood approved meals site (advise people picking up meals to stand 6’ away from others in line. Using tape to mark distance might help.)
ii. Drive through site
iii. Mobile site (bus, van)
7. Consider decreasing the number of times food delivery is done (1-2 times per week). Depending upon the nutrition program you’re using, you may be able to provide multiple days’ worth of meals at once.
8. Tips for Drive-Through Pick-up:
a. At curbside, driver indicates number of children they are picking up for using hand signals or talking through closed car window
b. Staff places the appropriate number of food units on the table and steps back from table at least 6 feet.
c. Family member (one person) exits their vehicle, picks up the food, and gets back in their vehicle.
d. Table is washed and repeat for next vehicle.
9. Meals can be delivered directly to a residence, but there should be no hand to hand delivery; leave on doorstep.
DO NOT go inside houses/apartments or speak to families through open car windows unless you are at least 6 feet away.