Great path of growth of Berģi Music and Arts Elementary School
Often, we are excited about items and places in other countries, because we think that it is definitely more beautiful and better over there. Sometimes we do not know how wonderful people there are in Latvia, who have contributed their work and perseverance to create pleasant and visually nice environment where our new generation can study.
On an early August morning we headed to Berģi Music and Arts Elementary School to meet Edmunds Krampāns, the Deputy Director responsible for household matters. The school is located 1.5 kilometres from the border of Riga, at a very beautiful place. As the sun was shining bright, the school buildings looked particularly nice. At the school sports fields in front of the building there are children happily chatting and enjoying days before the new school year starts. Inside the school premises there is pleasant silence and calm activity before beginning of the new school year. We used the opportunity to discuss the plans of the household division for the next school year and further future.
Could you tell us a little about the school and its history.
Berģi school was founded on 10 November 1870, on Martin’s day at the “Avoti”. In the beginning its name was Martin’s School. From the beginnings of the school until year 1926 there were 30 to 40 students at the school. Since 2010 the school has been given its current name - Berģi Music and Arts Elementary School. It offers primary and elementary education, as well as vocational programs in music and arts: keyboard instruments - the piano; the strings - the guitar and the violin, the wind instruments - the flute, the percussion instruments, the vocal music - the choir class, visual plastic arts. There are several study buildings, as well as a sports hall, stadium, a bicycle park, a skating ring at the school. At present 700 students study at the school.
What was your way to this school and this position?
I was studying at Berģi Music and Arts Elementary School. At that time still in the old manor house. I have been working at the school for more than 18 years, I have been actively involved in all the school development stages and projects.
Could you tell us about your team. How did you select it?
Cleaning works at the school are carried out by 14 cleaners. The total area for cleaning is above 8500 m2 and we manage 5 bigger and smaller buildings. Our team is stable, there is no turnover of personnel, as our cooperation is based on mutual respect. We have also employed Ukrainians who were able to integrate in our environment within a short period of time, as well as children’s grandmothers and people with university degree who want to have some physical activity in the evening. We do everything to provide comfortable working conditions and ergonomic tools to every employee.
How is the work of the cleaning staff organised?
If we speak about the new building where students of grades 1 to 3 study, we have to cleaners working during the day and performing sanitary cleaning after each break. All other cleaners start working in the evening. On each floor we have a comfortable cleaning room where all the tools, carts, chemicals necessary for cleaning are stored. In each cleaning room we have a wall rack for tools to avoid them being stacked in corners. The room looks much more tidy. In the old building students of grades 4 to 9 study. Corridors are narrower there, therefore we use a small scrubber-dryer Wirbel FR15 Hybrid.
How did you learn about “Profiks Clean” and how did cooperation start?
We started cooperating with Profiks Clean 5 years ago when I was contacted by the sales manager Liene from Profiks Clean. What Liene said seemed convincing and we slowly started our cooperation.
Are you satisfied with the scrubber-dryer Hako Scrubmaster B45CL?
The products offered by Profiks Clean stand out from the range thanks to their high quality and as we think about long-term cooperation and sustainability of products, we prefer quality. We bought a Hako Scrubmaster B45CL in 2019 and it works great. We use it every day for cleaning the large corridors in the new school building and also the sports hall. According to our estimation, the operator of the scrubber-dryer walks minimum 3 kilometres every day. We have entrusted operation of the Hako Scrubmaster B45CL scrubber-dryer to one employee to be sure that it is taken good care of. The long service time of the scrubber depends on how good its daily maintenance is. There are elevators in the school building, therefore there are no problems moving the scrubber-dryer between floors.
I see that you are using cleaning carts with Longopac bags. Why did you make this choice?
Profiks cleaning carts are durable and compact and the Longopac bag is very convenient. You can forget about bags for some time, as they are always available on the cart. We also care for the environment. When we use Longopac bags, we only dispose of the bag equalling the actual amount of waste. Also a squeegee is a very useful cleaning tool - we use it for both dry and wet cleaning, and we also use the convenient clean glass base for cleaning glass, as there is a lot of windows in our buildings and also a lot of little fingerprints on them.
What are the biggest challenges in performing cleaning works at a school?
Children are very active and we have enough work for both daytime and evening cleaning staff. This is not an office where adults work.
What are the plans for future?
Although the new building has been in operation for just few years, we plan to construct another new section. All the sections are connected by nice glass corridors where children enjoy staying during breaks. There are many who want to study in our school.
As we conclude our meeting we meet the smiling school director in the school yard who gladly shares with us how glad and satisfied she is with the new school building which has come exactly as it was dreamt of. I think to myself how happy a person is when she has been coming to this place for more than 10 years and speaks of it with this excitement. We thank for the opportunity to visit Berģi Music and Arts Elementary School. It was a pleasure to meet people who love their job and we wish all of us to come to work with such pleasure.