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Police clean up schools

Grant puts hand sanitizers in classrooms.

Sarah Newell Williamson | Hickory Daily Record

T.M. Caskey, with the Newton Police Department, and Kavin Ferguson with the Target Distribution Center in Newton, work to distribute the bottles of hand sanitizer now in each school in the Newton-Conover City Schools system and Startown Elementary.

By Sarah Newell Williamson | Hickory Daily Record

Published: October 23, 2009

NEWTON - Students in Newton and Conover may avoid getting ill this winter if they use the hand sanitizers recently placed in their classrooms.

The Newton Police Department applied for a $1,500 Infectious Controls in Local Schools grant from Target to receive enough hand sanitizers for each homeroom in all the schools in Newton and Conover, said Dan Brown, Newton police chief.

"We had to match $100, but we needed about $400 to ensure all the homerooms in the schools had bottles," Brown said.

Each of the 199 homerooms in the Newton-Conover City Schools system, as well as Startown Elementary in Newton's city limits, received a two-liter bottle of hand sanitizer Wednesday morning.

"If the kids stay healthy, they won't bring (illnesses) home to their parents, so they won't miss work," Brown said.

Newton-Conover City Schools Superintendent Barry Redmond said he's grateful for the police department and Target Corporation's generosity. He hopes it will help reduce the number of school absences in the system.

"I hope it will help minimize the amount of germs that spread the flu so quickly and help the attendance rate," he said. "In the last few weeks, we've had a sharp increase in absenteeism."

At ACT (Adolescents and Children in Treatment), 10 of the 30 students were out sick last week, said Kim Campbell, education director.

Redmond said 72 students were sick at Shuford on Tuesday, which is about 15 percent of the population, and about 10 percent of Newton-Conover Middle School was sick last week.

"We're already doing more cleaning at the schools, but this should help minimize the spread of germs," Redmond said.

He said although some schools have hand sanitizer, this will help during the tight budget year.

"We use (sanitizer) up so fast, it's great to have more," Redmond said. "It's definitely welcome during this tight budget."

Brown and Redmond thanked Target, saying it has embraced the community since it moved into its distribution facility in Newton.

"We feel extremely fortunate to have established a strong partnership with the Newton Police Department from day one," said Marc Holtman, assets protection group leader for the Target Distribution Center. "Community engagement is a big part of what Target strives to achieve, whether it's our law enforcement partnerships or our participation in community events."