CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — While Corpus Christi Independent School District students are on an extended Spring Break, custodians are hard at work.
Students were out for Spring Break last week, and on March 12, district officials made the decision to extend Spring Break until March 23 to help combat the spread of COVID-19.
In the meantime, continued cleaning and disinfecting is taking place across the school district.
KRIS 6 News got a look at the deep cleaning process inside of Adkins Middle School on Tuesday.
CCISD Coordinator of Custodial Operations Jeremy Tremblay said the staff is responsible for all 70 district buildings, which includes 57 school campuses.
“Wiping down all frequently touched surfaces," Tremblay said. "Desks, counters, faucets, door handles. Anything that is frequently touched on a daily basis.”
They are also using a disinfecting device called an electrostatic sprayer.
“This creates a positive charge to the disinfectant being sprayed so any surface with a negative charge, it will attach itself to." Tremblay said. "So it will actually wrap itself around an object to cover more area.“
Custodial crews clean daily during the school year, but this type of thorough disinfecting happens periodically. For instance, during flu season.
All the chemicals being used meet EPA requirements for fighting COVID-19.
“Each school has a different amount of personnel depending on the size of the school," Tremblay said.
CCISD Director of Communications Leanne Libby explained the purpose of the deep clean.
“Deep cleaning is a precautionary measure to maximize student and staff safety,” she said.
CCISD Superintendent Dr. Roland Hernandez said the district will decide either late Wednesday or on Thursday whether the district will open campuses on Monday.
In the meantime, there's no word on whether students will have to make up those missed days at the end of the school year.
According to Libby, the Texas Education Agency will make that decision.
“Once we reopen, established daily cleaning procedures will be in place as well as additional deep cleaning as needed.” Libby said.
