HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — Hillsborough County Schools need volunteers to help clean debris from school grounds.

All Hillsborough County Schools are closed on Monday due to 172 being impacted by power outages, and flooding, and students and staff are dealing with Hurricane Milton damage at home.

The school district is asking for the community’s help to get students back in the classroom, and many people are answering the call.

Several schools hosted cleanups in Hillsborough County on Monday morning including MacFarlane Park Elementary Magnet School in Tampa.

Everyone there seemed to agree, that if they worked together they could get back in the classroom in no time.

After a couple of hours of work from dozens of volunteers, the school started to look back to normal.

Uprooted trees and debris from them are the main concerns at Hillsborough County Schools, as they block access to many of the schools.

Students, teachers, and parents from MacFarlane know what they’re doing. They just recently helped pick up the pieces of their principal’s home destroyed by Hurricane Helene.

”The only thing she had left was like a TV and like two lamps, and then we had to throw everything else away,” said 8-year-old student Karthik Radhakrishnan.

It’s been about two weeks since Principal Denyse Riveiro lost everything but the people she loves, the students of MacFarlane.

The school just took a heavy hit from Hurricane Milton.

“I saw it, and I assessed it and I thought you know what, let’s invite the community out to clean our school so that when the children come back, they won’t see what’s going on at home, that depression,” Riveiro said. “That’s one thing that resonated very well with me is when I would drive by and see people’s things on the curb. It would come back what just happened.”

Riveiro is making sure students know they have a home here at school no matter how many problems, or hurricanes, blow their way.

“It’s going to look just like when they left, and it’s going to be safe and structured in a way that they are feeling welcome,” Riveiro said.

Many of the people here say they are proud to have such a strong principal, as they follow her lead to pick up remnants of trees, flat footballs, and other debris- at their school now that it’s the one to receive the damage. This time, it was Hurricane Milton.

“It almost seems like nothing ever happened at her place,” said Rahul Radhakrishnan, a parent. “She’s just functioning like everything’s normal and we know that it’s not.”

“I’d be running away,” said 8-year-old student Karthik Radhakrishnan.

It could be eight months to a year before Riveiro has a home again, but she plans to be at school leading by example.

This community has shown time and time again they will be here to help.

“No matter what happens to you, it’s how you get up and move on, and you can’t look back because it’s already gone,” said Riveiro. “It’s already at the curb.”

Now, tons of cleaned-up debris lines the curb at MacFarlane.

“That’s why I wanted my kids to come here because it shows that no matter what happens you rebound, and you just rebound day-by-day and it will get better no matter what,” Rahul Radhakrishnan said.

Riveiro had a big smile on her face and tears in her eyes as she watched the community come together for a second time on Monday.

“We’re very lucky,” said a couple of students.

Citrus, Hardee, and Highlands County schools are the only schools across Tampa Bay open on Monday.