Schools ready if swine flu hits home

Textbooks, pencils, calculators — and face masks? Administrators, teachers, staff and students are gearing for a new school new year with one more thing on their collective minds — how to keep healthy, especially with warnings about the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, as it’s more commonly known.

Dr. Elaine Kanas, superintendent of District 30, said the district is following the recommendations of the federal government and Center for Disease Control, which includes telling parents to keep their kids at home for 24 hours after a fever breaks. The district is also making sure that all surfaces are sanitized, she said, while offering antiseptic hand wipes in the computer labs. “We are going to send home a weekly newsletter,” Kanas said. “The first one will be devoted to H1N1 and how parents can help, and the guidelines that they should follow.”

Kanas added that schools officials hung posters promoting good hygiene in the schools’ hallways, and that a portion of the first faculty meeting will be devoted to keeping the staff abreast of the latest guidelines in mitigating the transmission of the virus. “In the district, we created our own checklist in cleaning supplies and guidelines given out,” Kanas said. The checklist includes keeping bathroom surfaces clean, making hand sanitizers available in the classrooms and sending children with flu-like symptoms directly to the nurse, she said.

Michelle D’Elia, former president of the Council of PTAs, said that she is not overly concerned about the H1N1 virus and said the most important guideline parents should follow is keeping their kids’ hands clean. “My kids know as soon as they walk in from school, the first place they go is to the bathroom to clean their hands,” D’Elia said. “That’s the rule in my house.”