MISSOURI CITY, Texas — Wednesday is the first day back for Fort Bend ISD students, and one of the top priorities for the third-largest school district in the Houston area, is keeping students and staff COVID safe.
Ahead of the new school year, our KHOU 11's Michelle Choi got a behind-the-scenes look at the districts COVID cleaning procedures.
During the last few days of summer break, we caught up with an important crew at Marshall High School in Missouri City.
"During the summertime, this is when we do what we call our deep cleaning.” said Terrence Thomas, Fort Bend ISD Director of Operations.
RELATED: Fort Bend ISD taking extra COVID precautions on its school buses: a look at what is being done
These workers are among the near 600 custodial staff that keep 81 of FBISD’s campuses clean, safe, and running smooth.
"I want to call what we do a major role in their learning,” Thomas said.
Thomas is in the man in charge. He’s been with the district for more than three decades.
"When I see successful kids that come from Fort Bend ISD, it just puts a smile on my face to know that I had an impact on them going to school and learning,” Thomas said.
Since the start of the pandemic, Fort Bend ISD has had a unique advantage compared to other districts when it comes to its COVID protocols. Six years prior, the district was forced to change its cleaning procedures after several its campuses were hit with a flu-like virus.
Damian Viltz is the district's Executive Director of Facilities and Thomas’ boss.
"So we didn't have to significantly change anything we were doing. We just had to reinforce our standard and continue to clean and disinfect every day," Viltz said.
They're standards like deep cleaning classrooms during the summer break.
"We do a top-to-bottom cleaning. We come into the classrooms, we start from the light fixtures, we wipe the walls down, down to the desk, and then the last thing we do is clean the carpets and re-finished floors,” Thomas said.
It doesn't end there.
The district says even after students and staff return for in-person learning this fall, its schools will be disinfected nightly using sanitizing tools, like its electrostatic guns and touchless bathroom cleaners.
Every classroom will also be equipped with sanitizing stations.
As always, standing by, making sure students learn in a safe environment will be Thomas and the districts hard-working custodians.
"I love what I do,” Thomas said.