School out for Leopold due to flu

Illness hit the Leopold School District last week; administrators declared the day off Friday to allow students to recover.

School staff said students with flulike symptoms were coming to school despite being contagious, and it was beginning to take a toll on teachers' plans for end-of-term reviews and exams.

The school district has a 174 students. With typical class sizes between 10 and 17 students, having five absent created problems.

"We had a handful of kids out Monday. Then Tuesday and Wednesday, we had to send more home because of fever," said superintendent Keenan Kinder.

Leopold schools normally have a 98 percent attendance rate, but after numbers dropped near 80 percent, especially in the elementary building, Kinder decided to cancel school Friday. The high school hasn't had many sick students, Kinder said, but administrators worried the illness would continue to spread if classes remained in session.

"Some parents with healthy kids were actually happy we called off today because now they aren't as likely to have it brought home," Kinder said.

The flu vaccine available this year may not be as effective against warding off the illness as in previous years, the Associated Press recently reported. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said this month the current vaccine is not as able to protect against the most commonly seen strain of flu. Despite the potential for decreased protection, the CDC still advises people to get vaccinated.

A CDC state-by-state flu report for a one-week period ending Dec. 6 shows Missouri as having regional activity while Illinois and Kentucky have widespread activity. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services also tracks the number of flu cases from October through May. So far this season, 3,318 influenza cases have been reported in Missouri, according to the department.

Leopold will be in school until Dec. 19, and finals have been pushed back until that date to accommodate the three-day weekend.

"We want to make sure we can keep on learning, and we couldn't really go on with kids out because they are missing, and not going on makes the ones who are able to be here miss, too," Kinder said.

On Friday, custodians in the district buildings used extra cleaning measures to rid facilities of germs related to the illness, and Kinder said the district also opened all the windows and turned off the heat.

Health officials say the best ways to avoid getting sick, aside from getting a flu shot, are to wash hands and disinfect surfaces often and to stay away from close contact with people who are sick. If someone becomes ill, the CDC advises taking antiviral medications for the flu as prescribed.

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388-3644

eragan@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

100 W. Main St., Leopold, Mo.