News Photo by Crystal Nelson Alpena Public Schools custodian Norm Male on Wednesday sanitizes desks in an Alpena High School classroom after school hours.

ALPENA — Northeast Michigan school districts are using state and federal funds to purchase personal protective equipment needed to keep students and staff safe and stop the spread of coronavirus in schools.

Districts bought masks, wipes, and hand sanitizer stations, among other supplies, to comply with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s rules about schools reopening amid the ongoing pandemic.

Calls to Alpena, Rogers City, Alcona, and Posen schools were not immediately returned, but other area districts told The News they’d bought thousands of supplies to make sure students mask up and classrooms are clean.

Some districts have had an easier time purchasing supplies than others.

Hillman Community Schools and Atlanta Community Schools officials ordered PPE in June, with many of those supplies arriving just in the past week.

Onaway Area Community Schools Superintendent Rod Fullerton said his district purchased 5,000 masks for students and 5,000 masks for staff in the summer, but they’ve had problems getting adult-sized rubber gloves.

“For whatever reason, that seems to be a difficult thing to — no pun intended — to get your hands on,” he said. “We have some on-hand, but we haven’t been able to buy any additional, so we’re definitely short on them.”

Fullerton said the state has promised schools money for COVID-19-related expenses, but, until the state approves its budget, the money has come from the district’s general fund.

He estimated the PPE cost the school “a few thousand dollars.”

School fiscal years begin in July. The state’s fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

Fullerton said students are choosing to wear their own masks to school.

Fullerton said the school is paying to staff a district quarantine room. The state requires schools to have a room set aside where ill students or staff can be isolated. If a student is in the room, a staff member protected by PPE must be with them.

Fullerton believes the district has spent more than will be reimbursed by the state.

Jill Olsen, business manager for Hillman and Atlanta schools, said the districts could not purchase pre-moistened sanitizing wipes, so they purchased four 55-gallon drums of chemicals to moisten dry wipes the district purchased.

Olsen said masks came in two orders and the districts had to pay a little more to guarantee they arrived by the first day of school. A second order of masks will ship in eight weeks, she said.

The two districts also bought hydrostatic sprayers, which Olsen said cost about $1,200 each.

“It not only cleans the air, it cleans the surface the mist touches on, and so those hydrostatic sprayers are really, really helpful to make sure you’ve got the proper cleaning,” she said.

Olsen said the district has used federal coronavirus relief funds — between $30,000 and $40,000 per school district — to purchase PPE. She said the district has a big enough stock that officials will be able to stay on top of their inventory and order more PPE before they run out.