Kolter Elementary School Principal Julianne Dickinson began to feel the weight of Monday morning before the sun went down the day before.
For Dickinson, Monday was different for a few reasons — the start of in-person instruction, the return of students to classrooms after eight months, and the required use of masks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the most special reason was that it was her students’ first day in their newly constructed school.
Continue readingIf you follow Eliot Elementary School Plant Operator Irma Martinez along on her new cleaning route, you’ll see her clean and disinfect the school from wall-to-wall — figuratively and literally.
As part of her new duties, Martinez is required to clean and sanitize restrooms and high touch surfaces every hour. It includes walls, door handles, light switches, faucets, cafeteria tables, and anything else young students may touch that could harbor viruses.
“I try to help the students as fast as I can,” Martinez said. “That’s why I don’t work by myself. I work with my team.”
Continue readingFacing hundreds of cars in a line that stretched down the street and around the block, it would have been easy for Nutrition Services staff to feel overwhelmed at their first neighborhood supersite in southeast Houston.
But for a department known for its dedication to keeping families fed and well-nourished, it was all in a day’s work on Wednesday — the launch of weekly community food distributions.
Hosted through a partnership with the Houston Food Bank, the supersites provide a place where Houstonians can go each week to pick up 32-pound family food packages and a week’s worth of student meals.
Continue readingFrom the moment a severe storm is predicted to make landfall along the Texas Gulf Coast, Facilities, Maintenance, and Operations staff are among the first to spring into action.
Crews place sandbags around flood-prone campuses. Generators are checked and filled with fuel. Pump systems are inspected to make sure they are operational.
“As long as we don’t have a power outage in the area, the pumps should carry all the water that could cause more damage down the road,” said North Maintenance Plumbing Team Lead Kenneth Wesley, who oversees the dispatch of plumbers to campuses when faced with a severe weather threat.
Continue readingCollaborative learning spaces and abundant natural light are the hallmarks of a trio of Houston Independent School District high schools now being recognized for their innovative designs.
The new buildings for Madison High School and Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center, as well as the addition and renovations to Northside High School, are three of just 48 projects across the state being recognized by the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) and Texas Association of School Boards (TASB).
“These awards are a testament to our focus on our students,” HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said. “We are proud to provide them with beautiful, functional spaces that foster learning and excitement. At the end of the day, it’s always about the kids.”
Continue readingAs an HISD plant operator at Field Elementary, Maria Santana has always worked hard to keep her school clean and safe. When students return to campus on Oct. 19, she’ll work even harder to do so.
As part of enhanced cleaning procedures, HISD custodians are required to target high touch surfaces every hour. This includes continuous sanitization of sink faucets, handrails, and desks using a host of cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting methods on an hourly, daily, weekly, and even emergency basis.
“We know how to clean,” Santana said. “But now it’s going to be about the details. Hitting those high touch areas like doorknobs.”
Continue readingTransportation Services is finalizing bus routes for eligible riders who have indicated to the district they plan to return for in-person learning and preparing to notify parents of assigned routes next week.
School bus service will be limited when in-person instruction resumes on Oct. 19 due to physical distancing and its impact on bus capacity. Under the HISD Communicable Disease Plan, buses will run at half capacity with just 26 students.
To accommodate the reduced capacity, bus service will be limited to special education, homeless, elementary, and specialty school students. Service also may be provided for some students in middle school as well as those who live along high-risk routes if resources are available.
Continue readingAs the district prepares to resume in-person learning this month, Nutrition Services is transitioning from daily to twice-weekly curbside pickup for student meals and launching two Neighborhood Supersites as part of a weekly community food distribution initiative.
The move to twice-weekly campus-based curbside pickup begins Monday, Oct. 12 thanks to a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It allows families to pick up several days’ worth of meals at each pickup — three on Mondays and four on Thursdays.
Neighborhood Supersites are designed to provide standing times and locations where the community can pick up 32 pounds of groceries — including produce, dairy, and meat — for their families, as well as a week’s worth of student meals.
Continue readingAs an HISD crossing guard, Mary Campbell has always placed a strong focus on student safety as she carefully ushered students across busy streets. This fall, her mission is no different – but her job is.
Campbell is one of 72 school crossing guards tasked with helping students maintain physical distancing at HISD’s 36 Digital Learning Centers, which provide students without technology a place to complete virtual lessons during HISD’s online-only first six weeks of school.
With the help of physical distancing floor markers, Campbell keeps each student six feet apart and leads them down the hall to breakfast.
Continue readingNutrition Services Chef Trainer Brittany Jones is used to teaching others how to prepare tasty, nutritious meals. Now she’ll get to share her expertise with others around the state thanks to a virtual learning seminar.
Jones recently visited Texas A&M University where she filmed culinary demonstrations to be included in virtual lessons for the Learn, Grow, Eat, and Go program offered by Texas AgriLife Extension’s Junior Master Gardener program.
Learn, Grow, Eat, and Go curriculum is used in select HISD elementary science classes to teach students about gardening, nutrition, and physical activity to promote long-term health. Nutrition Services hopes to share the new virtual lessons, which complement the in-person curriculum, all HISD elementary teachers via science curriculum coordinators.
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