At Katy High School, daily foot traffic from more than 3,000 students adds to cleaning demands, a challenge Katy Independent School District said is tougher to manage with vacant custodial jobs.
According to ABC13 Houston, with a districtwide shortage of about 100 custodians, Katy Independent School District has rolled out cleaning robots at 17 campuses.
Here's what to know
The district invested about $1 million in the devices, at roughly $30,000 per unit. After students leave, the machines can spend around eight hours either scrubbing hard floors or vacuuming carpet.
@abc13houston Meet Katy ISD's newest cleaning crew. 🤖 The district is using robots at 17 schools to help tackle a shortage of about 100 custodians.
♬ original sound - ABC13 Houston
The district has had trouble filling custodial roles across its campuses. Katy Independent School District officials told the station that "there are lots of choices for people," which has made hiring for those jobs more difficult.
District officials told ABC13 Houston that entry-level custodial pay is about $30,000 annually, about the price of one robot. They also stressed that the machines are not being pitched as a full substitute for janitorial staff.
The TikTok post drew criticism from viewers, many of whom focused on wages. One user said, "Buy robots instead of paying people livable wages?"
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More background
Officials told ABC13 Houston that keeping floors maintained is a significant everyday job at Katy High School, where more than 3,000 students circulate through the campus.
The machines are still absent from about 70 schools, meaning the current rollout reaches only a slice of the district. Katy Independent School District officials said that any broader expansion may hinge on the results of this first phase.
The report also prompted practical questions about what the robots cannot do. One user asked, "Paying 30k for a vacuum/mop? Who's cleaning the toilets?"
Others similarly argued that machine-based floor care does not address every custodial responsibility inside a school.
What's being done?
According to Katy Independent School District, the robots handle some of the after-hours floor work, but human custodians are still part of campus operations.
Even with the robots taking on part of the cleaning load, district leaders told ABC13 Houston they are still trying to fill vacant positions.
One official said, "We're people oriented first. So this is not about, you know, taking jobs. This is about complimenting what our great staff is already doing."
The district said the short-term goal is cleaner hallways at campuses that might otherwise be stretched thin by staffing shortages, particularly at large schools such as Katy High School.
School leaders framed the decision as both a staffing response and a service measure.
They said they are "always looking for new and innovative ways to make sure our schools are, our hallways are safe and they're clean."
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