It's going around

By CHANSE WATSON

Managing Editor

KELLOGG — This probably was not what the students of the Kellogg School District had in mind when they thought about an extra winter break. If they had known that it meant nearly 30 percent of the student body and faculty getting sick, they probably would have chosen class over home.

Unfortunately for those afflicted though, students and staff had little choice in the matter as influenza and other nasty sicknesses swept through the district this week — causing an abnormally high number of illness-related absences.

Because of these district-wide absences, school officials decided Wednesday night that the best and safest course of action was to cancel all classes and activities for the remainder of the week. This announcement affected all students and staff at Kellogg High School, Kellogg Middle School, Pinehurst Elementary and Canyon Elementary schools.

KSD superintendent Woody Woodford explained that the district came to this decision by following the guidelines provided by the Panhandle Health District (PHD), who have been watching the situation closely.

PHD begins to monitor schools in our region when they go above an eight percent illness related absence rate. If a school reaches or goes above 30 percent for three days in a row, they then recommend that it close for safety reasons. Ultimately, the school district has the final say on school closures, not PHD.

In the case of Kellogg, the district held a 28 percent absence rate on Jan. 10 and it was only going up.

“Even though it was only two days where we were above those numbers, the trend was not downward,” Woodford said. “So just airing on the side of doing the right thing for kids, we thought, let’s let them stay home, heal up, get some rest, and seek out any medical attention they might need.”

The building contributing the most to the collective absentee statistic was Pinehurst Elementary, with 175 of the 430 total students in the school out sick on Tuesday, Jan. 9 (roughly 41 percent). On top of this, the staff population was taking a hit as well.

“We pretty much exhausted our sub pool,” Woodford said. “For example, at Pinehurst we had one day where 15 staff members were out.” The school’s total staff count is roughly 35 to 40 individuals.

Pinehurst Elementary was the first to shut its doors when KSD announced on Tuesday that the school would be closed for the remainder of the week.

The last time a situation like this has happened was in 2006, when KSD shut down Sunnyside Elementary when the school hit an absentee rate of 40 percent.

With the halls of the schools empty, Woodford states that the district will take the opportunity to do a “deep cleaning of all buildings and school buses.”

Since the reason for the closures fall under the category of “emergency status,” the missed days of school will not be made up. Woodford explained that the district factors in a couple extra days (technically “instructional minutes”) out of the school year for these types of situations (normally used for snow days). In situations where school needs to be canceled more than two days, the district can petition the state for more days.

On top of classes, this district-wide closure has also led to the cancellation of all sporting and club events until next week — home or away. Woodford said this decision was made not only for the betterment of the people in those groups, but also as an act of courtesy for other schools.

School officials to the east in the Wallace and Mullan school districts are currently (knock on wood) not experiencing the high absentee numbers that Kellogg has.

Todd Howard, Silver Hills Elementary principal, is thankful for this fact, but is making sure the school is prepared for the worst.

“We have two custodians on staff that work very hard each and every day to insure all surfaces are cleaned and sanitized on a daily basis,” he said. “Teachers also do their part to have students clean desk tops throughout the week/day.”

KSD plans on reopening all their schools on Monday, Jan. 15, but will continue to monitor the situation and reevaluate if needed.

This year’s flu season has already claimed the lives of 13 people in Idaho; eight coming from the five northern counties.

Flu viruses spread when people with it expel droplets from their mouths or noses while coughing, sneezing or talking. People can also get the flu by touching a surface or object that has the flu virus on it and then touching their own mouth, eyes or nose.

Although this year’s flu vaccine has proved less effective than in the past (the Center for Disease Control reports it being roughly 10 percent effective due to virus mutations), PHD still recommends that all people 6 months of age and older get immunized, saying that the vaccine promotes antibody protection within two weeks and can help make flu symptoms less severe.

In addition to flu vaccination, both PHD and the Silver Valley school districts also recommend frequent hand washing with warm water and soap, covering coughs and sneezes, and staying home if sick.