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Albany schools closing due to flu
Classes dismissed today, Friday; will resume Monday
by Ray Scherer
Thursday, October 22, 2009

ALBANY, Mo. — Officials with the Albany R-3 School District have decided to cancel all classes today and Friday due to the spread of general flu-related illness throughout the system.

Superintendent Bryan Prewitt told the News-Press Wednesday afternoon that more than 20 percent of the district’s 433 students were out with the flu.

“It started out primarily in our elementary school” and then affected the remaining upper classes, Mr. Prewitt said.

“It’s pretty evenly spread” throughout the system, he added of the numbers of sick students involved. “It hits the young ones harder.”

It’s uncertain which strain of the flu virus is impacting the schools, Mr. Prewitt said.

“We’re just trying to get everybody away from each other,” he said.

Officials currently plan to resume classes in the district on Monday.

In a sign of how rapidly the H1N1 virus is spreading, education officials said 198 schools in 15 states were closed Wednesday because of swine flu, with more than 65,000 students affected. That was up from 88 school closings the day before, the Associated Press reported.

Ray Scherer can be reached at rayscherer@npgco.com.

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heritage_sarahhochschwender October 22, 2009 at 8:36 a.m. (Suggest removal)

medical opinion is that if you have the flu this early in the season, it is H1N1. why are schools so reluctant to use that term?

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mm1967 October 22, 2009 at 11:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Heritage the district is reluctant to use the term because they do not want to have to deal with the situation.Our child got this crap and has asthma and it has been very hard on our child.The school is loaded with it and they fail to have a plan.Our district is reactive instead of proactive.They will what till they have more of a issue before they will admit they have a issue and they are prolonging the spreading of this H1N1.They do not even seem to show any concern for their own school staff downtown or the children.Well maybe when one of them get it and go through being sick and see how bad it is then they will realize they have a issue in the schools.They do not even have a education plan for students that has underlying health issues that this will affect harder then the normal healthy child which they should other districts do .These children do their work from home and have access to things they need to complete their wirk and a way for them to turn in their work.They will wait till something bad happens to one of these children with health issues before they act.Piss poor management skill no matter how you look at it.

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sunny13 October 22, 2009 at 8:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)

The real question - why do parents continue to send their sick kids to school?

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mm1967 October 22, 2009 at 9:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Apple see that's where you are wrong on 2 accounts.
1.This story does relate to what is going on within our own district and shows what some districts do and what others fail to do.
2.I have lost rack on how many times I have to tell you I do not HATE,seems like you have some type of learning disability when it comes to this.

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mm1967 October 22, 2009 at 11:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Apple sorry I missed my T so lets say it again.I have lost track on how many times I have told you I do not hate so get it in your head district lover. I am sure you need to think outside of your box everyonce and a while and take those blinders off.But this is exactly what I would expect from you.So really apple how did you buddies convince you to flip flop on your position that the levy should not have the sunset on the levy to it must have it on the levy.Did they promiseyou a gold path to your porch or what.

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