St. Mary Catholic School Community, October 2, 2009
I write this letter to apprise you of what our school has done to reduce the spread of H1N1 flu. As of today, there has been one suspected but unconfirmed case of this flu. The student will be out for an extended period of time per recommendation from the family physician to make sure that he is symptom free before returning.
The best prevention for the spread of the flu is to do what we are currently doing by:
• Encouraging frequent use of hand sanitizers, provided in the classrooms
• Encouraging frequent, proper hand washing
• Sending home students with any flu-like symptoms, including fever
• Having tissues readily accessible
• Encouraging “coughing in the sleeve” and similar simple hygiene procedures
Other precautions we are now taking include :
- Cleaning water fountains, door handles, and other frequently touched items daily
- Cleaning keyboards
- Teachers cleaning all desks daily
- Ensuring students with fevers and flu-like conditions do not return to school (must be fever free for 24 hours without medication).
- Students exhibiting flu like symptoms will be in a separate room while waiting to go home in order to reduce the exposure toward other students.
All of our decisions in response to H1N1 will be based on health information from national, state, local and diocesan health officials and will be predicated on what allows our school to function as normally as possible while providing a safe environment. Information can be found at www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu .
Questions:
Please do not hesitate to ask me any questions regarding our response. We have discussed our plan at staff meetings and last night at school council. I have been in close communication with our faculty and cleaning crew to make sure our children will be safe. Please do not send students to school who are exhibiting signs of the flu as it puts others at risk. Symptoms of this flu are 100 degree or above temperature, cough and body aches.
God bless,
Philip Stutey
Principal