Hundreds of classroom rugs are returning to their respective schools after Luv-A-Rug Services cleaned them for free in time for the start of classes.
The company stepped up late last year to offer no-cost washing when it heard that rug cleaning had been curtailed in early elementary level classrooms in the Greater Victoria School District.
“We want kids to have clean rugs,” business owner Dusty Roberts said. “There are children with asthma issues.”
Rugs can harbour a variety of nasty materials, including fecal matter at times, he said.
B.C. has spent millions building beautiful new schools and should cover the cost of cleaning rugs, Roberts said.
The issue is not confined to one district, but rather should addressed throughout the province, he said.
A new rug cleaning standard, with increased vacuuming, is coming into effect this month, the district said in a statement. Further details were not immediately available.
The district reviewed its cleaning practices to find that some area rugs were being vacuumed daily while others were cleaned less frequently. Rugs had been removed from classrooms some time ago, but were being brought back into classrooms as a learning tools beyond kindergarten and Grade 1, it said.
“The district is very appreciative of Luv-A-Rug’s community-minded initiative. We happily accepted their offer as carpet cleaning [beyond vacuuming] typically happens over summer break or as needed.”
Rugs and the images on them are a staple teaching tool in classrooms for the youngest students. Some rugs are provided in schools while in other cases, teachers buy them and pay for their cleaning.
Roberts said that Luv-A-Rug posted on its Facebook page slightly more than a month ago that it would clean rugs at no cost.
They started coming in individually and then the school district delivered and picked rugs up in its own trucks, he said.
About 400 rugs were washed. Each one was cleaned individually to avoid any possible contamination, Roberts said
Washing is completed in a special area with a sloped floor and fire hoses. Rugs are then rolled up and transferred into a four-metre-long device, resembling a long pipe, that rinses and spins. Rugs are hung up to dry.
The value of the cleaning is about $90,000, Roberts said, adding: “We are absorbing it.”
Roberts and his eight employees put in extra time through the holiday season to get the job completed. Christmas Day was the only day that rugs were not being cleaned, he said.
James Gammon, Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association president, said that teachers should not be put in the position of having to purchase supplies such as rugs for a classroom. The association has filed a grievance regarding the issue of clean carpets. That grievance is still outstanding.
Rugs in kindergarten and Grade 1 classrooms used to be cleaned “pretty regularly,” on an as-needed basis, he said.
A few months ago, that system was modified, with the kindergarten and Grade 1 rugs cleaned only one time per week. Cleaning was also cut back for higher elementary grades, he said.
