The Crookston Public Schools Safety Committee met Wednesday afternoon receiving a mock Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) report and identifying other needs for the district’s facilities.
Building & Grounds Director Rick Niemala said one of the main focuses of the meeting is to identify maintenance items or other needs that haven’t come up yet, including the annual mock OSHA report. “It’s mainly about maintenance on things that are broken or not up to par as OSHA,” said Niemala. “We do a mock OSHA that comes through and does an evaluation of our facilities and equipment. They write us a report, then we go back and follow their recommendations as far as upgrading or repairing existing stuff.”
Niemala said the report often focuses more heavily on more hazardous areas within the district’s facilities. “The big areas that OSHA looks at are the wood shops, metal shops, and science areas,” said Niemala. “The more hazardous things whether it be industrial or in the school. Maybe it’s got a broken plug or a frayed cord or something else that maybe isn’t quite right for it. We’ll go back and repair those things to get them where they need to be. All of the SDS (Safety Data Sheets) have to be up to records. That’s stuff we try to keep the staff up to speed on so that they know where the answers are that they need them.”
The report included a couple of cords that needed to be replaced, some stockpiles of food that needed to be moved further away from an electrical panel, and the need to label some spray bottles.
Food Service Director Anna Ogaard-Brekken also shared that the food service staff has had some concerns about the difficulty of controlling the rolling doors around the high school kitchen and that the Department of Health had identified some chipping paint and a wood shelf that should be replaced around the kitchen area at Highland School. Niemala. “There is some of that stuff that comes to the meeting,” said Niemala. “We might four times a year and people bring those kinds of concerns to us so that we can address them and get things repaired before somebody gets injured or worse.”
