Swine Flu Outbreaks at Vt. Schools

[Commonground]

Note: I found the "comments" to this article very interesting. One sample is:

"I am a mother of 6 and my daughter got sick with high fever, chills, cough and diaherra. Within 8 hrs of her first sympton i had her at the local er. They done the flu swab test in her nose and it came back positive. I was terified. My oldest son is 14 and my youngest being 2 they have never had the flu. Within the 8 hours of her first sympton she had already developed pnemonia."

Burlington, Vermont - October 19, 2009
Some area schools are being hit hard by the H1N1 virus.
More than 30 kids were out sick last week at Champlain Elementary School in Burlington. Shelburne Elementary also saw a major spike in its absentee rate.
Doctors expect the virus to continue to spread, especially among children, but so far most are reporting only mild symptoms.
"There's a concern that more children will get the flu than in past years but there's no evidence it's any worse than in past years, just that more children will be affected," said Dr. Christopher Grace of Fletcher Allen Health Care.
All this week we take an in depth look the H1N1 virus and how you can protect yourself and your family. That's this week on the Channel 3 News at 6:00 p.m.
Keagan Harsha - WCAX News

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=11336114#

[vt.mathgirl]

Re: Swine Flu Outbreaks at Vt. Schools

Swine Flu Keeps Vt. Kids Home

Shelburne, Vermont - October 20, 2009

"I'm nervous about it. Absolutely," said Sue Leister, the school nurse in Williston.

A lot of school hallways look a little empty this week.

At the Shelburne Community School more than 200 kids are absent. That's more than one-fourth of the school population.

Just down the road at Williston Central School 83 kids are out sick.

"Closing the school is really not an option at this point," Leister said. "That's going to have to be a huge decision in the middle of the year, and that's a last resort."

Williston Central School did close early last year due to swine flu.

The Vermont Education Department is trying to avoid that this time around, urging schools to stay open no matter how many get sick.

Many are prepared to offer classes online.

Much of the emphasis in the classroom is on education-- teaching kids to practice proper hygiene.

"I don't think they're scared. I think it's something to talk about." said Mike Anderson, a fifth grade teacher.

Vaccination clinics at some schools are scheduled to begin next week but could be delayed due to a shortage of the vaccine.

Meanwhile others aren't even scheduled to receive it until mid- to late-December.

Some parents have concerns about the safety of the vaccine.

At the Children's School in South Burlington some preschoolers have already received it in the form of a nasal spray.

"It's new. It's kind of been pushed through rather urgently," said Rebecca Stazi, a parent. "However, I don't want to kick myself in the shins nine months from now and wish I would have gotten it."

Students here begin each day by washing their hands.

Parents are also using the social networking site Facebook to discuss flu activity.

"I'm a little worried about it," said Chris Muzzy, a parent. "I think we're being a little more vigilant about hand washing and good practices."

At the college level most students seem to be taking H1N1 lightly. In fact some are even holding swine flu parties. But most university officials are concerned.

UVM has seen three confirmed cases of swine flu and most all colleges are seeing more students than normal with flu-like symptoms. Teachers at UVM are prepared to offer classes online and thermometers have been distributed in the dorms to help students determine whether they have a fever.

Other schools are asking sick students to quarantine themselves to slow the spread of the virus.

[Commonground]

Re: Swine Flu Outbreaks at Vt. Schools

Burlington, Vermont - October 21, 2009


H1N1 Skyrockets Vt. School Absentee Rates

Absentee rates continue to climb at many Vermont schools due to the H1N1 virus.



More than 200 kids were out sick yesterday at the Shelburne Community School, one of the schools hardest hit by the virus so far. Williston Central School had 83 kids out sick.



That school is planning to hold a vaccination clinic next week but the Health Department now says many of those clinics could be delayed due to a shortage of the vaccine.



That has teachers and nurses worried.



"We have a number of teachers that are pregnant and working in the environment 8 to 10 hours a day. It's scary," said Williston Central School nurse Sue Leister



Tune in to the Channel 3 News tonight at 6 p.m. as we continue our special series on the H1N1 virus and its impact on pregnant women.
Keagan Harsha - WCAX News

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=11350811

[Commonground]

Re: Swine Flu Outbreaks at Vt. Schools

Flu hits Burlington-area schools unevenly

October 21, 2009

The flu season is making a scattershot debut at local schools, swelling absentee rates in some but not in others -- yet.

The only certainty, as the contagion moves through the area in its unpredictable way, is that group-health profiles can change very rapidly -- overnight, in fact.

Take Champlain Elementary School in Burlington, which has an enrollment of about 300. Oct. 14 was a day like any other, Superintendent Jeanne Collins said, with just five students out and no reason for concern. Then the next day, bang! -- 10 percent of the students stayed home. By Monday, Champlain's absentees were up to 55.

At Burlington's C.P. Smith Elementary School, one-fifth of the students were absent Monday, but attendance was close to normal at the city's two magnet grade schools and the high school.

A similar pattern was playing out through the area -- reminiscent of the carnival game Whack-a-mole -- with flu-like symptoms showing up suddenly in some schools, not in others.

Not that the others think they're off the hook. School flu-shot clinics are being planned throughout the region, starting in the next two weeks and noted on school district Web sites. The shots might not come soon enough for some -- confirmed cases of H1N1 flu are sprinkled through the area.

No one can say how many of the school absences are because of flu, much less the H1N1 variety. The presumption is, however, that flu-like symptoms are sending many kids home or keeping them there.

"The majority of kids we're sending home have fever, headache, tummy ache -- flu-like symptoms," said Evelyn Carroll, one of the nurses at Milton Elementary School, where 180 children -- about 16 percent of the enrollment -- were out Tuesday. That's four times the normal absentee rate.

At Shelburne Community School, 218 of the 750 students were out Tuesday, said Elaine Pinckney, superintendent of Chittenden South Supervisory Union. She said it was unknown how many of the absentees might have the flu, but she said the absentee rate was far higher in Shelburne than at any of the union's other schools.

In South Burlington, 300 students were absent Tuesday, about 12 percent of district's enrollment, said John Everitt, superintendent. Hardest hit was Frederick Tuttle Middle School, with an absentee rate of more than 20 percent.

Meanwhile, at Chittenden East and Chittenden Central schools, attendance rates were reported at near normal.

In the Essex Town School District, today is the deadline for signed permission slips for the first flu clinic, scheduled for Nov. 5. About 600 of the 1,400 students in the district have signed up, said Terence Keating, director of student support services.

"One of the biggest drawbacks is that parents are not allowed to attend the clinics," Keating said. At the same time, he said, private health-care providers are not providing the H1N1 vaccine to children who are eligible to receive it at school.

"It's sort of a Catch-22," he said.
Contact Tim Johnson at 660-1808 or tjohnson@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20091021/NEWS02/910210312/1001/NEWS/Flu-hits-Burlington-area-schools-unevenly

[vt.mathgirl]

Re: Swine Flu Outbreaks at Vt. Schools

This from Burr and Burton in Manchester. Notice they haven't cancelled football.

Classes Canceled Oct. 22 and 23
Posted 10/21/2009 01:00AM

Headmaster Mark Tashjian announced today that classes for Thursday and Friday are cancelled. Administration, School and College Counseling , Business, Advancement, and Maintenance operations will remain open on Thursday and Friday. The decision to cancel classes is based on the continued high absentee rate among students, the rising rate of faculty illness, and the logistical difficulties presented by running a school at such diminished capacity.

There are a number of postponements or cancellations as a result of this decision:

? All athletic contests on Thursday will be rescheduled as follows: Varsity Girls Soccer will play at Rutland Saturday at 4 pm. JV Gold Girls Soccer will play at Rutland on Monday at 4 pm.

? All sports practices are canceled for Thursday. Practices may resume Friday afternoon after 2 pm.

? Friday evening's Calliope Cafe will be rescheduled.

? Fall play rehearsal is canceled for Thursday. Rehearsal may resume Friday afternoon after 2 pm.

? Refuse to Use events on campus will be rescheduled



The following events are NOT affected by this decision:

? Friday night's football game against U32 will be played as scheduled.

? Saturday's Varsity and JV Boys Soccer games will be played as scheduled.

? Mid-term exams will remain as scheduled. Teachers will be encouraged to help students catch up next week and adjust their exams to recognize the diminished capacity for learning over these past few days.

? ACTs on Saturday will remain as scheduled.

[vt.mathgirl]

Re: Swine Flu Outbreaks at Vt. Schools

This is from today's Bennington Banner.

Schools closely watch absentees Students, faculty struggle with illness
DAWSON RASPUZZI
Posted: 10/22/2009 11:15:57 PM EDT


MANCHESTER -- A trend of increasing student and faculty absences began last week at Burr and Burton Academy, peaking at 160 students earlier this week, and forced Headmaster Mark Tashjian to make the decision to close the school for the first time in recent memory.

Last Friday about 90 students were absent and after the weekend about 125 were out Monday, increasing to approximately 160 Tuesday and 150 Wednesday, when Tashjian said administration decided it had to close the school for the remainder of the week.

Tashjian said the administration had monitored the situation all week, and when the number of absentees didn't decrease more dramatically Wednesday the decision had to be made.

"We discussed it each day and decided to see what the next day brought ... if we had dropped back down to 100 by Wednesday we might have considered staying open," Tashjian said.

Usually, between 20 and 30 of the approximately 700 students who attend BBA are absent on any given day, Tashjian said.

Tashjian said with one-quarter of the student body and about 10 percent of the teachers absent, it had become difficult to operate a school effectively.

None of the cases are confirmed H1N1, although Tashjian said he expects a number of the absent students are infected with virus often referred to as swine flu.

Tashjian said that even faculty members with the longest tenures at BBA can't remember the school previously closing unexpectedly like this.

He said the school will reopen Monday, and his hope is that with the four days away from school the majority of students and faculty will return healthy and operations will continue as expected.

While the classes are empty school employees are disinfecting the campus. "The maintenance department is working very hard to wipe off all surfaces and disinfect the entire school," he said.

Other schools also have seen a rise in the number of student absentees recently. At Pownal Elementary School, approximately 35 of the 260 students were absent Monday and Tuesday, and at Bennington Elementary School between 45 and 50 of its approximately 275 students have been out each day this week.

Of those absences, only a small number have been due to flu-like symptoms, according to Daphne Tuthill, the director of special education services for the Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union.

"We've been monitoring every school at the end of each week and getting absentee numbers for kids that have symptoms of H1N1 -- fever and sore throat or a fever and cough," Tuthill said. "And those numbers have held pretty steady ... we haven't had a spike yet."

Of the 35 students absent in Pownal, only four had flu-like symptoms, which is half as many as a week earlier in the school year.

Tuthill said that because of the large number of absentees, she is monitoring the absentee rate at both schools daily. If the number with flu-like symptoms does rise in any school, Tuthill said parents will be made aware of the situation immediately.

In Arlington, the number of absentees has not been any different this fall than other years, said Arlington Memorial High School Principal Kerry Csizmesia.

All schools are warning parents to keep students with flu-like symptoms home at least 24 hours after a fever has been reduced without medication.

"We're emphasizing don't come back until they're healthy," Tashjian said.

H1N1 vaccination clinics sponsored by the state have been set up for all area schools, and Tashjian said he has encouraged the students to take advantage of the free vaccinations.

In the SVSU, Tuthill has also encouraged parents to tell the school secretary if their child has flu-like symptoms when calling to make the school aware of their child's absence, to help track the number of children with the signs of H1N1.

Contact Dawson Raspuzzi at draspuzzi@benningtonbanner.com

[vt.mathgirl]

Re: Swine Flu Outbreaks at Vt. Schools

BBA absenteeism declines after peak

Published: October 29, 2009

MANCHESTER ? A Burr and Burton Academy spokeswoman said on Wednesday the school seems to be "back to normal" after closing on Oct. 22 and 23 due to a large number of absences.

The independent high school saw a high rate of absenteeism starting on Oct. 15 until by Oct. 20 and 21, about 150 students, almost 25 percent of the student body, was out of school.

Headmaster Mark Tashjian said school officials believed that H1N1, or "swine flu," was likely responsible for some of the absences.

After being closed on Thursday and Friday last week, the school reopened on Monday. Frederica Templeton, a spokeswoman for Burr and Burton, said she had spoken to educators and administrators who believed that absenteeism had returned to normal levels.

The school is no longer dealing with a large number of faculty who are out sick either, Templeton said.