3 SLO County elementary schools without hot water struggle to pass health inspections
Three local elementary schools were in hot water during routine inspections by San Luis Obispo County health inspectors last month — mostly because they didn’t have hot water.
Grover Beach, Grover Heights and Shell Beach elementary schools — all part of the Lucia Mar Unified School District — didn’t pass their initial health inspections in May and had to be reinspected after inspectors discovered multiple violations that had to be remedied.
Aside from schools, inspectors from SLO County’s Environmental Health Services Division visit restaurants, bars, coffee shops, grocery stores, mini-marts and more on a monthly basis. They score eateries on a 100-point scale and make deductions based on the severity of the violations they find.
Grover Beach Elementary School, located at 365 10th St., lost a total of 14 points during its inspection May 4.
According to inspection notes, “employees lacked knowledge of proper food safety practices such as hand washing, glove use and sanitation.” Employees were told to ensure single-use gloves were being changed between tasks and to properly wash their hands with soap and warm water prior to food prep.
The school also lost points because workers were preparing foods and cleaning dishes despite not having hot water.
According to the inspection notes, workers indicated that the water heater had been turned to low; it was fixed on-site and by the end of the inspection was up to the correct temperature, the inspector noted.
The school was still ordered to have a reinspection later in the month to confirm the water temperature stayed within the appropriate amount.
Grover Heights Elementary School, located at 770 N Eighth St. in Grover Beach, was inspected the same day, and the inspector found a lack of hot water there as well.
According to the inspection notes, workers were using restrooms inside the school office to wash their hands that did not have hot water; they also were observed improperly thawing frozen meat in a three-compartment sink in the kitchen area where they were also preparing produce.
A reinspection was ordered for Grover Heights to ensure the water situation was remedied.
At Shell Beach Elementary School, located at 2100 Shell Beach Road in Pismo Beach, workers were observed using the hand-washing sinks in the office bathroom — which once again did not have hot water. A reinspection was ordered to ensure the school fixed the issue.
All three school kitchens also had workers whose food safety certifications could not be located or verified at the time of inspection, according to the inspection notes.
Lucia Mar spokeswoman Amy Jacobs told The Tribune that the water heater at one of the district sites — presumably Grover Beach Elementary — had been “bumped by the custodian and accidentally turned down.”
That was corrected while the inspector was on site, Jacobs said.
At the other two schools, Jacobs said new permits for new buildings caused some confusion and resulted in changes to hot water availability in those new buildings.
“We have corrected the problems and have retrained our staff as well,” Jacobs said.
To check out the safety and cleanliness of your favorite restaurants around SLO County, visit EatSafeSLO.org and use the interactive map to view full inspection reports.
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