SPRINGFIELD -- Greene County health inspectors spend their days making sure restaurants are clean and healthy. Inspector Karen Prescott, with the Greene County Health Department, says checking schools is no less important.

"We inspect all of our schools twice a year," she said.

Just as at restaurants, Prescott says inspectors check for everything from evidence of flies to burnt out lightbulbs.

KY3 News obtained all of the reports for inspections conducted at Springfield schools last year. Inspectors went to 50 schools twice each. Thirty-one of them had at least one violation during the school year. One third of them had a least one critical violation.

The Springfield School District contracts with Aramark to provide its food services. Aramark general manager Steve Smay says he's proud of the district's record and parents should be too.

"We have schools that have been three years -- six inspections -- and all perfect," said Smay.

According to health department records, Central High School had the most violations noted during one inspection -- 2 critical and 2 non-critical. Rountree and Westport were the only other schools where inspectors found more than one critical violation during the same inspection.

As far as the types of violations, sanitation issues were the most common during district-wide inspections. Three times inspectors found evidence of mice droppings and twice flies.

Despite the serious nature of the violations, both Smay and Prescott say there is little that the schools can do to avoid them.

"If you're going to get a mouse, he's going to head to the food supply," said Prescott.

"Sometimes the entry point for flies is beyond our control; however they end up in our location," said Smay.

Smay added that, in many cases, violations are fixed on the spot and all critical violations are fixed within 72 hours.

"The cleanest, safest places to eat are cafeterias in Springfield public schools," he said.

Prescott agrees. Health department statistics show, while restaurants average one critical violation per inspections, schools average one critical violation for every three inspections.

"They've simplified menus to where there's minimal amount of steps and preparation," she said.

But, while better than restaurants, Smay admits there's always room for improvement.

"My goal would have 100 percent at ever location," he said. "If that's realistic, I'm not sure, but it's still what we work toward."

In addition to health department inspections, Aramark also has assistant directors visit at least one school per day to try to make sure they're safe and clean.

To see copies of all inspection reports with violations during the 2007-2008 school year, click here.