TO: Bath County Public School Staff
FROM: Dr. K. David Smith, Superintendent
DATE: May 5, 2009
SUBJECT: Pandemic Flu Planning
Thankfully, the H1N1 (Swine) flu pandemic has so far been milder than it could have been. Most cases have not been worse than a typical flu experience, which while uncomfortable, is not life threatening. We must not let down our guard with the simple but effective prevention measures that we all can take to help keep the flu out of Bath County Public Schools. Teach your students to:
· Wash their hands - several times per day - with soap and water for 20 seconds. Be sure to set a good example by doing this yourself.
· Cough and sneeze into a tissue or into the inside of their elbow/shirt sleeve. Tissues should be discarded after a single use and hands washed.
· Stay at least six feet away from people who are sick.
· Stay home from school when they are sick, to stay away from other people until they are better, and to have their parents call the school office to report symptoms.
· Stay away from shopping malls, restaurants, movie theaters, or other places where there are large groups of people in communities where H1N1 has occurred.
As you know, there are two cases of publicized flu at W&L University in Lexington; one case is confirmed as H1N1, the other remains listed as ‘probable.’ The Virginia Department of Health has given assurance that our students are not at a significantly increased risk from these cases, and that W&L and area school divisions do not need to alter school or extracurricular schedules.
The odds are that there will be other H1N1 cases in our area, possibly in Bath County. The revised guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Virginia Department of Health call for school closure of 14 days or more in the event of a confirmed H1N1 case. From the W&L experience, we can see that they do have a range of alternatives in a given situation, but we must assume that the school closure guideline will be enforced if a Bath County resident contracts H1N1 flu. School closure will affect all athletic and extracurricular events (including end-of-year commencement and promotion ceremonies) -either postponement or possible cancellation. Please check out the Pandemic Flu Resources website that is linked to the division and school home pages. It has links to a number of very good informational resources to keep you informed of the latest guidance from local, state, national and international agencies, and will be updated as necessary.
Teachers, please think ahead with your lesson planning for the last several weeks of school. Please be ready to assign long term assignments and a quantity of shorter assignments that may provide adequate continuity of instruction for students if school should be forced to close. While it is possible that you will have limited access to your classroom during a closure, you may not. You could choose to rotate multiple text resources home with children on alternate days. Perhaps you would store assignments in a special folder in your staff resources area on your school file server that could then be accessed by you or other staff to distribute to students. Alternately, your classroom website would be an ideal place to store assignments, worksheets, instructions, etc. for students to access from home. Please speak with your school principal about your plans to reach and teach students. As mentioned in my letter to parents this past Friday, we will take advantage of all available resources (web, School Messenger, personal phone call, radio, television, etc) to communicate with families if we must close school for an extended period of time.
Standards of Learning testing is upon us. While these assessments are very important, they will not interfere with our primary mission to keep students safe. School closure will obviously postpone these tests. We will do the best with the situation in which we find ourselves. For now, please maintain focus on instruction and preparation for end-of-year assessments.
Please know that the 14 day scenario is the first response in a closure situation. The requirements for a 180 day calendar and high school course hours remain. Although it does not seem as likely in our current pandemic, a more severe situation would force school closure for a longer period - possibly two to three months at a time. We are required to provide instructional continuity throughout a pandemic event. There would be many questions to be addressed in such a situation, and although the same official instructional time requirements apply, there is provision for possible waivers. Again, our available resources may change in this situation, and all we can do at this point is to think about the possibilities for instruction to continue, and to remain flexible in our approach. Our instructional, support and administrative staff are the best resources our school division has to provide quality instructional services to students in the best - and worst - of circumstances. We are educators; we will find a way to help children learn.
We have been fortunate to date to not have been negatively affected by the H1N1 flu pandemic, other than the special attention to hygiene and the media distraction. I know that you will do what you can to keep yourselves and our students healthy and learning.
Thank you for your efforts.