Schools take extra precaution against spread of H1N1
By: JOAN HELLYER
Bucks County Courier Times
Students with a fever, glassy eyes, sore throat and runny nose should not be sent to school, officials said.
Higher than normal absentee rates at two Neshaminy elementary schools and the increasing threat of the contagious H1N1 virus have prompted officials to post "preventive" messages on the schools' respective Web pages.
There's no indication that the virus, more commonly known as the swine flu, is responsible for the increased absentee rate at Oliver Heckman and Herbert Hoover elementary schools, Neshaminy Superintendent Louis Muenker said Tuesday.
School nurses and principals have stepped up their attendance tracking efforts as flu season gets under way, he said. Once the two elementary school principals identified the increased absenteeism, they posted identical notices that began:
"Current (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines regarding the H1N1 virus (does) not require actions above and beyond how we would address seasonal flu. If this should change, we will post related information here."
The absences in the two schools are likely a mix of the swine flu, as well as the regular seasonal flu, pneumonia and other ailments, said Joseph Paradise, Neshaminy's business administrator.
The peak for regular season flu is generally in January or later during the winter season, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 24 percent of Heckman's 538 students were absent Tuesday and close to 90, or 14.8 percent, of Hoover's 606 students did not report for class, Paradise said.
Similarly, Pennsbury's Charles Boehm Middle School had a 21 percent absentee rate Tuesday, spokeswoman Ann Langtry said. The absences were due mostly to "normally seasonal colds," she said.
"We are not seeing a lot of students with fevers," Langtry said.
Officials from area districts and schools encouraged parents to keep their children home if they exhibit signs of illness.
"Currently, many Heckman students are presenting with a fever, glassy eyes, sore throat and runny nose. In some cases, the onset of symptoms is sudden, and may occur after the child has arrived for school," Neshaminy officials said in the Heckman Web posting.
Should they have a fever, students should stay home for 24 hours after it has stopped on its own without the use of any fever-reducing medication, health department officials said.
Letters from the two schools also were sent home Tuesday to parents informing them of the higher than normal absentee rate and encouraging them to be "diligent" about their child's health, Muenker said.
It's a different approach from about a year ago when swine flu first surfaced, he said. At that point, if even one case was reported, entire schools were shut down until they could be cleaned.
Now schools are taking steps while cleaning to try to kill as many germs as possible to prevent the potential spread of the virus, based on the advice of county, state and federal health officials, Muenker said.
Neshaminy officials will continue to monitor the absentee rate in all its schools and will discuss the rates with county health department officials to see if any further action should be taken, he said.
Other area schools and school districts also are keeping a close eye on their absentee rates to see if they need to enact any special flu-fighting measures, officials said.
That's why Council Rock School District administrators posted letters on the district's Web site regarding Newtown and Sol Feinstone elementary schools.
Newtown's absentee rate is between 9 percent and 10 percent, said Superintendent Mark Klein. Sol Feinstone saw a spike in one grade level, though Klein did not specify which one.
The letters, which were drafted based on everyone's heightened awareness, ask parents to encourage their children to wash their hands and not to share personal items. Principals Kevin King and John Harlan also said officials are calling families with sick kids to understand their symptoms, and maintenance crews are taking extra steps to clean classrooms with high absentee rates.
School Lane Charter School in Bensalem had an absentee rate of about 10 percent of its 583 students Monday and Tuesday, said Karen Schade, the school's principal and chief executive officer.
One grade, which she did not identify, had a 25 percent absentee rate Monday and a different class had a higher than usual absentee rate on Tuesday. None of the students who have been absent recently have been confirmed to have the H1N1 virus, she said.
But that's not stopping the school off Bristol Pike from taking preventive measures.
"When we have a large number of students out in one room we deep clean the room in the evening. We are paying extra close attention to public areas of contact such as door handles with each evening cleaning," Schade said.
Area school districts, including Bensalem, are trying to prevent the virus from ever becoming a problem by reinforcing good hygiene practices among its students, a district spokeswoman said. Nurses are encouraging students to use "proper hand-washing [techniques] and how to cough into the sleeve," spokeswoman Susan Phy said.
In addition, schools are gearing up to host H1N1 vaccine clinics for students and staff members in the next couple of weeks, Muenker said. Plans for the clinics are being worked out with the county health department, he said.
