Hannah Zylstra is the principal of the Laurens-Marathon Community School District, which sent students home early Monday and told them to stay home the next day.
“On Friday, we had a lot of kids out and some staff who were sick primarily with influenza, a handful of strep and some tummy bugs,” Zylstra said. “I was hopeful that over the weekend, we would see a decrease, but we were still overwhelmed by the number of kids out ill by 10 a.m. — we were at 24% — and by 1:00 p.m., we were at 27%.”
Custodians and extra staff members spent Tuesday cleaning and sanitizing the building to curb germs for the 140 students in pre-K through sixth grade who attend classes in Laurens.
“It was a hard call to make. You don't want to cancel school because it's more time to make up. But you know, in reality, it's what's best for our children,” Zylstra said. “It's keeping those kids at home, giving them more time to rest — and hopefully, we're hoping to prevent the spreading of the illness.”
More schools impacted by illness
School districts report to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services when a building reaches an absentee threshold of 10%. The most recent data released for the week that ended on Jan. 25 showed more than 100 school buildings statewide were impacted by illness. That’s an increase of more than 30 locations from the previous week.
Besides Laurens-Marathon, a Catholic elementary school in Sioux City planned to close for one day on Wednesday. And an elementary school in Johnston shut down for two days late last week.
“I think it's everywhere. We’re right smack dab in the middle of respiratory virus season,” said Tyler Brock, deputy director of the Siouxland District Health Department. “It can be frustrating with these respiratory viruses because it seems like no matter what we do, it's kind of hard to avoid it.”
Brock said schools across the state seem to be inundated with illnesses like the flu and COVID, even if health officials don’t track individual cases of influenza or COVID.
“It's hard to tell whether or not this year is more severe or not. But it does feel like I'm getting more school absence reports than last year — that's more anecdotal than data driven,” Brock said. "We're not quite out of the woods yet. Hopefully we'll start seeing some improvement in the next couple of weeks.”
Advice for parents of sick students
The Sioux City Community School District sent an email to parents about an increase in illness. Even though they aren’t seeing as many cases as surrounding districts, they have noticed an increase in the past couple of weeks.
School officials asked parents to follow these guidelines:
- Wash your hands with soap and water regularly or use hand sanitizer as an alternative when soap and water are unavailable.
- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue or your elbow if you cough or sneeze.
- Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
- If your student has a fever or is not feeling well, keep them at home. Students should stay home until they have been fever-free for 24 hours, without fever-reducing medication.
School administrator deals with illness in her own home
Zylstra knows the pain some parents are going through. She’s a mom of two children sick with influenza A.
“It’s hitting everybody differently, but our kids have high fevers and congestion. With any kiddo like that, it’s hard to sleep at night,” she said. “They can't return to school until Thursday as long as their symptoms have subsided."
And Zylstra wondered if she might be the next to catch the virus.
“My husband reached out to me at work today saying he is not feeling so well. So, I might be the last sitting duck. You know how that goes,” she added.
