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Here's what Greater Cincinnati schools are doing about the flu

Sheila Vilvens Jeanne Houck
Cincinnati Enquirer
The flu vaccine is widely available in the community, offered by businesses, retail stores, doctors’ offices and at the Northern Kentucky Health Department’s health centers.

Editor's note: Scroll down for a list of area school districts and what they are doing to keep students healthy through flu season.

Tristate schools are taking a proactive approach to keeping students well after a sharp increase in reported flu-like symptoms the second week of January across the country.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 32 states, including Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, experienced high Influenza-like illness activity during that period.

Covington Catholic High School sent out a message Monday to parents alerting them to a higher than usual absentee rate. A total of 75 students were absent, 10 with the flu, according to school secretary Lois Flaherty.

The letter included guidelines for keeping students home in cases of flu, strep throat, fever and stomach virus.

More:Worst flu season in recent years makes treatment and prevention crucial

Fewer students were absent Tuesday, Flaherty said. To help halt the possible spread of illness, hand sanitizer is available throughout the building, Flaherty said.

“Unfortunately, we have a lot of sick kids,” Flaherty said. “We had four buses that went to the March for Life and a lot of these kids were on the buses. That’s why I think we have a lot of sick kids.”

Mason City Schools

Mason City Schools are on alert for increased flu, according to spokeswoman Tracey Carson. The district is contacting parents for flu-like symptoms, and encouraging parents not to send their child to school if he/she is feeling sick.

“If sick, stay home,” she said.

In an effort to reduce the spread of germs, the district promotes hand hygiene, covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue or sleeve, and staying home when sick for both students and staff.

Mason parents were encouraged to have children immunized for the flu, and to take sick children to the doctor sooner rather than later, Carson said. 

Cases of confirmed flu are tracked by the Mason schools for trends.

More:Here's what Greater Cincinnati schools are doing about the flu

“In response to that, we do extra deep cleaning in those areas of our schools where students with flu may have been,” Carson said. “However, flu is spread by coughing and sneezing, so cleaning the areas is helpful, but not a guarantee. We do track illnesses all year because we have a number of students who are immunosuppressed by cancer and other conditions that warrant notification to their parents.”

Boone County Schools

More of the same precautions were taking place at Boone County Schools.

"Like others, we have some out with flu bug, (but) not hearing it's widespread though," Superintendent Randy Poe said. "There are no school closings. Special precautions like everyone – wash those hands, cough in the sleeve and get the flu shot if you have not."

Campbell County Schools

Campbell County Schools are closely monitoring student attendance, according to district spokeswoman Connie Pohlgeers.

“We are in preventative mode versus reactive mode,” she said.

More:Flu raging through Ohio, with a third child dead; precautions you can take to stay well

In a Jan. 23 message to staff, Campbell County Superintendent David Rust said attendance dropped to 94.7 the day prior. Though not terrible, it’s below average and indicated the district is beginning to see some illnesses, he wrote.

He encouraged teachers and custodians to work together to make sure surfaces are disinfected on a daily basis.

More:How's Greater Cincinnati's flu season compared to past ones? Here's what the numbers say

“This should include doors, door handles, tables, desktops, computer keyboards/mice and any other frequently touched surfaces. Principals, please facilitate this in each of your buildings,” Rust said in his message. “Additionally, principals, for the next week, I would like you to make announcements at the beginning and end of every day reminding students about the importance of frequent hand washing, covering noses and mouths with elbows when coughing or sneezing, and to keep their hands away from their faces to reduce the transmission of viruses.”

Kenton County Schools

Kenton County School District Health Coordinator Paula Rust said attendance in the district was holding steady with where it typically is during this time of the school year.

"We added a note to school newsletters at the start of 'hat/coat weather and flu season' with recommendations in dealing with health issues and put other information out accordingly," Paula Rust said in a statement.

She pointed students and parents to the district's health services website for resources on when to keep children home.

More:Get your kid a flu shot: First child deaths in Ohio, Kentucky this season

Lakota Local School District

In the Lakota Local School District, there are students out with the flu, but it’s not an unusual number for the district or the surrounding community, according to District Manager of Health Services Lauren Brown.

Registered nurses track student illnesses throughout the school year in Lakota Schools. The district encourages parents to keep students home if they have flu-like symptoms.

“Having a full-time registered nurse at every one of our schools to own this process is especially critical to our ability to identify trends and, most importantly, monitor individual students to give them the care they need to stay healthy,” Brown said. 

By monitoring trends, the district’s maintenance and custodial staff routines can be tailored to curb the spread of germs, she said. This time of year, the nurses are also heavily promoting the importance of handwashing and healthy living habits like covering your cough.

Finneytown Local School District

Finneytown Local School District officials are closely monitoring students for signs of the flu, Superintendent Terri Noe said.

“(There’ve been) only a handful of cases reported as confirmed flu at Finneytown so far,” Noe said.

She said that if a student is experiencing symptoms of the flu and has a fever of 100 degrees or higher, the child is put in a mask to prevent the spread of the illness and a parent or guardian is called to pick them up.

District policy is to take action if 20 percent of the student body and staff in one building or in the district as a whole is suffering from any illness, Noe said.

“The recommendation would be to close the school and disinfect,” she said.

Loveland City Schools

Some Loveland City School students have recently visited school clinics or been absent due to illnesses such as the flu, a cold and an upper respiratory or gastrointestinal virus.

But District Nurse Judy Leamy said students in the Loveland City Schools generally are doing well health-wise, and the schools work hard to keep them that way.

Every year after winter break, district nurses visit preschool through fourth-grade classrooms to teach students how to properly wash their hands and to cover their mouths when they cough, she said.

Children in grades five through eight watch a video that covers the same issues.

Custodians were trained over the winter break on new cleaning equipment and protocols.

Year-round, “The clinics work with the custodial staff directly identifying high-need areas that need additional cleaning once a higher concern area is noted,” Leamy said.

Leamy said district nurses work closely with administrators at every building to keep abreast of health concerns and pass along information to parents as needed.

She said she is sending out a health newsletter to students’ homes Friday and “part of it is about proactive ways to prevent illness of any kind, including the flu.”

Forest Hills Local School District

The Forest Hills Local School District is not seeing high numbers of absences due to the flu, said Erika Daggett, associate director of communications.

“We consistently and proactively take precautions against all illness,” Daggett said.

District schools are cleaned regularly with a broad-spectrum micro-organism-killing solution that is effective against germs including those associated with flu, colds, staph, and MRSA, Daggett said.

“As always, food-service employees wear gloves when handling food and disinfecting soap is provided for use by students and staff,” Daggett said.

Daggett said district administrators, school nurses and maintenance teams are provided with information on how to prevent the spread of illnesses. 

“Students are also taught about the importance of hand-washing and how to do it effectively, and we review the proper way to cough or sneeze to decrease the amount of germs passed between people,” Daggett said.

Milford Exempted Village Schools

Milford Exempted Village Schools staff is monitoring student absences and tracking those out with flu or flu-like illnesses, district nurse Patty Price said.

They have no statistics now, but Price emailed parents last week to say there was an increase in the number of flu cases in the schools and community. 

“To combat the further spread of flu in the school, we are asking you to keep sick children at home,” Price wrote in the letter. “Any child that displays flu-like symptoms will be sent home. “To alleviate the spread of the virus within the school, we request that no child returns to school until his/her temperature has returned to normal."

Price’s letter, which also was distributed via social media, included a list of flu symptoms and an explanation of how flu spreads.

Sycamore Community Schools

Officials with the Sycamore Community Schools in Blue Ash, Montgomery and Symmes townships are monitoring the number of student illness cases, Mallory Bonbright, chief public relations and communications officer said.

“Our nurses have seen an increase, but nothing to the point of concern,” she said.

Bonbright said district nurses are reminding families that it's not too late to get flu shots. 

And, “Our maintenance staff continues to use antibacterial cleaning supplies to disinfect classrooms, the cafeteria and other common areas - as well as changing out air filters to prevent the spread of illness,” she said.