Schools remain open, families and district deal with 16.1% absentee rate and climbing. North School tops the list at 30%. Just since last Wednesday the number has jumped from 329 to 931!
We asked Superintendent Nate Greenberg how many were out and some details on past years.
What is the normal number of students out in November and how many are out today?
“In Nov. our daily avg. is 227. Today our revised total was 931.”
How many are out with H1N1, the swine flu?
“As best we can tell based on parent calls and kids we sent home 383 are ILI (Influenza Like Illness.) In reality I would guess that more than the 383 are related to ILI.”
Don’t you get students calling in sick this time of year normally?
“In a normal year the absentee rate does jump in Nov. from the previous month. October average is 164 vs. November average of 227.”
Percentage by Schools Students absent today November 2, 2009
- North School 30%
- Moose Hill School 26%
- Matthew Thornton School 24%
- South School 17%
- Middle School 16%
- High School 11%
This letter was sent home by email and “Book bag” transport to Londonderry Parents
Dear Parents and Guardians,
We have seen a steady increase in the number of students district-wide who exhibit what the medical community refers to as Influenza Like Illness (ILI – approximately 7.4% reported with ILI).
The symptoms these students are experiencing include high fever, fatigue, sore throat, cough and sometimes accompanying nausea, lasting four or five days. It is important that you contact your child’s physician and provide him/her with specific symptoms. As well as contacting your physician, it is critical to contact the school to tell us specifics of your child’s symptoms. If your child is ill, please check his/her temperature. Finally, and most importantly, please keep your child home until he/she is well, 24 hours fever-free without medication before returning to school.
Let us reassure you on a few critical points. First, we are taking every precaution we can reasonably take to keep students in our schools healthy. Second, we will keep you informed as this situation changes. Third, we are already hearing from parents of ill students about losing time, keeping up with lessons, and the stress that this entails. PLEASE – DO NOT WORRY! We know that your children will be exhausted during their illness, and they should not be expected to even try to keep up their schoolwork. Even when they come back to school, they will still not be at full energy. We will make sure they catch up over time, and they will not be penalized in any way for being ill.
We want you, as parents, to be able to focus on your child’s recovery, and not to add additional stress that can only prolong the illness. We will assist in every way with schoolwork AFTER they have recovered.
At this point, we are not contemplating the full closure of our schools, but if and when that happens, we will be in full communication with you.
If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to call your school at any time.
Sincerely,
Nathan S. Greenberg
Superintendent of Schools
The school has the ability to run daily reports district wide and our nurses are keeping data daily and have been since the first day of school.
Wednesday of last week we asked the Londonderry School district how it was looking at Londonderry Schools with all the H1N1, Swine Flu info in the traditional media news.
Kim Carpinone Pupil Services Director last week said, “We have seen a spike this week in absenteeism and numbers calling in with ILI symptoms. We actually suspect more may be out with ILI but are vague on the absentee line. We continue to remind parents to please let us know the reasons and specific symptoms (ie: fever) as to why their child is out.”
This snapshot of a day provides the real impact of Influenza for 2009
Attendance info for the last week of October
Londonderry had 350 out on Monday, 325 on Tuesday and 329 out today (Wednesday Oct 28th) across the district but he ILI absentees are increasing.
October 28th breakdown:
- LHS 121 out ; 32 with ILI
- LMS 72 out; 8 with ILI
- MT 30 out; 10 with ILI
- NO 50 out; 27 with ILI (and three more after the report was run were sent home)
- SO 36 out; 10 with ILI
- MOOSE 23 out; 8 with ILI
“The difference between Oct 28 this year to last year is 129 more students absent this year.” Kim Carpinone continued in a email response to our request for information, “Given that last year was a “mild” flu season and this is early for flu anyway, it is fair to say that the increase in absences may be primarily due to ILI (of which we have 95 today).”
Read our story “The 211 on H1N1” for more information and a link to the state of New Hampshire hotline. Including links to some fun coloring book pages about washing your hands for the little ones that may be home this week!
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The superintendent is seriously misinformed if he thinks all teachers are sympathetic and helpful to students who miss class due to illness. Many, of course, do allow extra time to hand in work and assist in helping students catch up. Others refuse to allow make-up work or assign extra busy work that is not even part of the coursework to “compensate” for the student’s absence. Just recently, my high school student was sick for 6 days four days before grades closed. Every teacher demanded that she complete all make-up tests and coursework as well as any new coursework by the day grades closed. She was staying after school every day and giving up her lunch period to take these tests. She was very stressed, and did not score as well as she usually does. The superintendent asks us not to worry about absences, but these student do, in fact, have every right to be very concerned.
The homeschooled shall inherit the earth…
What happens after missing 5 days?
I just got a second notice (never got a first notice) that my child will get a ‘E’ (attendance failure) for missing 6 days. They missed one day a few weeks ago for a stomach bug and 5 consecutive days for the flu. The form said it must be returned by the end of the quarter, but that was a week before we got any notice. We did call the school, got their make-up work, told them my child would be out for 5 day per doctors orders. They never mentioned having to appeal absences that were excused by a doctor.
homeschooling isn’t the answer to this….