Following nationwide trends, absences throughout Pickens County schools reached a system-wide high with over eight percent of all students out last Monday. Not all absences are attributed to the flu pandemic, with strep and upper respiratory viruses also playing a factor.
According to numbers released by school officials, there were 374 students, or 8.4 percent of the student population, absent from classes October 26. The next day there were 369 absences and 353 on Wednesday, the 28th.
“Compared to this time last year, our absences have doubled,” said Attendance Officer Shelly Cantrell.
Cantrell said, during the past week, Pickens County Middle School reported 40 new cases of flu, and Jasper Middle School had 30. In addition, Tate Elementary had 26 new cases, Hill City had 10, and Jasper Elementary and Harmony each had 7 new cases. PHS reported 8 new cases of flu last week.
Pickens County Middle School and Tate Elementary were hit the hardest, with 15 and 16 percent of their total student populations out Monday. PCMS reported 22 new cases of flu that one day, and the percentage of kids absent continued in double digits this week.
“We usually start picking up more absences in the first part of December,” Cantrell said. “We have actually started a lot earlier with it this year. We’re certainly taking extra precautions with the cleaning processes. Right now we’re just taking it a day at a time and keeping our fingers crossed.”
Cantrell said school officials are providing in-service training to bus drivers on cleaning and disinfecting buses to try and keep illness from spreading.
Students aren’t the only ones getting sick. Harmony Elementary School reported 19 teachers and staff out of work on a single day last week.
“That’s the most we’ve had out in one day,” said Harmony Principal Sherry Mullins. “That same day we had 58 kids out sick too. Monday and Tuesday of last week it was getting pretty hairy.”
Mullins said her school has seen flu, stomach virus and a lot of upper respiratory illness.
“We had a little peak and now it seems like it’s calmed down,” she said.
School officials are keeping tight checks on absences attributed to the flu, since the state is allowing systems to code those kids separately under federal AYP guidelines. AYP, or adequate yearly progress, is part of the No child Left Behind Act that rates schools based on test scores and the number of absences.
|
|
