Bay Elementary isn't the only Clear Creek school with bat problems.

Remember the bats hanging around the gym at the Clear Lake Ninth Grade Center last month? The ones thought to be gone? On Thursday one was spotted in a classroom and another in the commons area during the school day.

They aren't the only bats spotted there this week, but school district spokeswoman Elaina Polsen said the bat activity is "not like anything like we saw at Bay," where 90 bats have been captured so far.

Nonetheless, evening activities at two ninth grade center gyms have been canceled for the rest of the week since bats are most active at night, and the district's increasingly experienced bat team has swung into action.

Not only are they working to drive out the furry stragglers at the Clear Lake Ninth Grade Center, they're also taking precautions at four other schools where no bats have been spotted, including neighboring Clear Lake High School and Bay Elementary's next-door neighborhood Seabrook Intermediate. Measures are also being taken at Goforth Elementary and its neighbor League City Intermediate because there have been tell-tale signs of bat activity in the area.

The precautions consist of caulking most of the holes that a bat might squeeze through to get inside the building -- that's any hole larger than a nickel -- and covering the select few remaining holes with a mesh that's supposed to let the bats get out but not back in.

At the Clear Lake Ninth Grade Center this weekend, the school district plans to take the additional step of pumping Sporicidin, a disinfectant used in hospitals, into the school's ventilation system, the same treatment that Bay Elementary received last weekend. The idea is to both kill germs and encourage the bats to leave in search of fresh air.

The school district's on-staff, certified bat catcher has been on the case at the Clear Lake Ninth Grade Center since Jan. 20, when boys practicing basketball noticed a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats overhead.

After the sighting, the school promptly sealed off most of the holes using expanding foam in areas bats were thought to living and crews pumped in steam to chase the bats out, then sealed up the remaining escape hatches in hopes the bats couldn't return. Just last week school officials declared the school bat-free, but it turned out some bats had remained behind.

Drawing on procedures learned from the bat catcher hired to deal with this week's crisis at Bay Elementary, the school district has now reinspected the Clear Lake Ninth Center, resealed the entire school with caulk and added the netting.

"Obviously, there have been lessons learned," said Polsen.