Central Ark. (KTHV) - Winter weather has been known to close down school in a small local area, but this time the flu and other winter illnesses are getting the blame.
Five schools clustered along U.S. 67 in Lonoke and White County called off class before the long President’s Day weekend to allow teams to disinfect buildings.
“As soon as we got the word it was ‘go’ time,” said Aaron Reed, assistant director for Custodial Services at Cabot Public Schools. “We immediately coordinated with each other. We sent out emails to all of our custodial staff letting them know that priority is disinfect.”
Some districts, including the state’s largest in Little Rock, already had the day off, but by Thursday superintendents from Bradford, Bald Knob, Rose Bud, Beebe and Cabot each told kids and staff to stay home.
“We knew we had the day off Monday and then having the AMI day today,” said Chris Nail, superintendent of Rose Bud School District referring to the program that allows teachers to assign homework that can be completed online. “It would give us extra time to sanitize the buildings and hopefully get our kids away from each other for four days to maybe stop the spread of the flu.”
School districts everywhere have been dealing with sick kids for weeks. The problem in these last few days became a teacher shortage.
“The real problem was finding substitutes,” said Dr. Belinda Shook, superintendent of Beebe Public Schools. “We had several teachers who were out and we about three or four from each building who had to leave.”
Custodians in Beebe spent Thursday and Friday using aerosol foggers to hit every nook and cranny of each classroom. Shook said she had never had to cancel schools for sickness in her 13 years in Badgerland.
She said 10% of her staff was sick in the last week. A spokesperson for Cabot said 14% of the staff was already scheduled to be out Friday with more expected to call in that morning. Fifteen classrooms did not have substitutes lined up for Friday.
No matter how the districts are cleaning, either through elbow grease or high-tech germ zappers, administrators hope they can soon wipe away what has been an unprecedented flu season.
For a breakdown of flu cases reported to the Arkansas Department of Health, view the chart below. Keep in mind, these are just cases documented by a health care professional. The state figures actual numbers of cases is higher.
FLU CASES BY COUNTY AS REPORTED BY ADH
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County |
Pop Cases % |
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Arkansas 19,019 141 0.7% Ashley 21,853 229 1.0% Baxter 41,513 634 1.5% Benton 221,339 4647 2.1% Boone 36,903 822 2.2% Bradley 11,508 159 1.4% Calhoun 5,368 39 0.7% Carroll 27,446 388 1.4% Chicot 11,800 200 1.7% Clark 22,995 127 0.6% Clay 16,083 277 1.7% Cleburne 25,970 319 1.2% Cleveland 8,689 163 1.9% Columbia 24,552 253 1.0% Conway 21,273 369 1.7% Craighead 96,443 2291 2.4% Crawford 61,948 456 0.7% Crittenden 50,902 111 0.2% Cross 17,870 237 1.3% Dallas 8,116 116 1.4% Desha 13,008 375 2.9% Drew 18,509 92 0.5% Faulkner 113,237 2662 2.4% Franklin 18,125 642 3.5% Fulton 12,245 170 1.4% Garland 96,024 1009 1.1% Grant 17,853 166 0.9% Greene 42,090 637 1.5% Hempstead 22,609 262 1.2% Hot Spring 32,923 246 0.7% Howard 13,789 38 0.3% Independence 36,647 756 2.1% Izard 13,696 354 2.6% Jackson 17,997 254 1.4% Jefferson 77,435 1851 2.4% Johnson 25,540 486 1.9% Lafayette 7,645 43 0.6% Lawrence 17,415 439 2.5% Lee 10,424 37 0.4% Lincoln 14,134 169 1.2% Little River 13,171 11 0.1% Logan 22,353 482 2.2% Lonoke 68,356 1440 2.1% Madison 15,717 282 1.8% Marion 16,653 242 1.5% Miller 43,462 97 0.2% Mississippi 46,480 184 0.4% Monroe 8,149 136 1.7% Montgomery 9,487 46 0.5% Nevada 8,997 80 0.9% Newton 8,330 166 2.0% Ouachita 26,120 169 0.6% Perry 10,445 235 2.2% Phillips 21,757 201 0.9% Pike 11,291 131 1.2% Poinsett 24,583 387 1.6% Polk 20,662 161 0.8% Pope 61,754 659 1.1% Prairie 8,715 66 0.8% Pulaski 382,748 3951 1.0% Randolph 17,969 806 4.5% St. Francis 28,258 176 0.6% Saline 107,118 1378 1.3% Scott 11,233 50 0.4% Searcy 8,195 323 3.9% Sebastian 125,744 1583 1.3% Sevier 17,058 103 0.6% Sharp 17,264 458 2.7% Stone 12,394 407 3.3% Union 41,639 314 0.8% Van Buren 17,295 317 1.8% Washington 203,065 2578 1.3% White 77,076 1641 2.1% Woodruff 7,260 111 1.5% Yell 22,185 440 2.0% |