H1N1 Update

This is in response to the many questions about Plymouth Schools and the H1N1 virus. I will continue to update the community as we expect this outbreak of flu to last through March 2010.

· Our custodial staff continues to clean the schools high travel areas multiple times daily.
· Our buses are cleaned nightly.
· Our teachers continue to stress to students the correct way to cough, sneeze, and wash their hands.
· Our nurses continue to monitor sick children and send them home if they have flu-like symptoms.
· Our nurses and attendance staff continue to audit the percentage of students absent with flu-like symptoms.
· Our head nurse is in close contact with the Marshall County Health Department.
· We continue to ask parents to keep their children home until 24 hours after the fever is gone without using medicine such as Tylenol or Ibuprofen.
· We continue to send packets of homework if students feel well enough to work on it.

While we don't expect to close schools, we know that a possibility exists that we may have to close one school or the entire corporation. Across the country, several hundred schools have closed, mostly because the bus or teaching staff has been hit hard with the flu.

We are following Department of Education suggestions to prepare work for students if the schools are closed. These packets will be sent home in the next few weeks and can be accessed through the school's web site.