From staff reports
LEWISBURG — H1N1 flu is taking a toll on classroom attendance, although the impact is hitting Central Susquehanna Valley school districts unevenly with some reporting dramatic drops in attendance while others say absenteeism has remained close to normal.
On Thursday, some schools reported that as many as 20 percent of students stayed home from illness or for other reasons.
Lewisburg Superintendent Marl DiRocco said absenteeism is running higher than it was last year at this time. Overall, it’s about 16 percent, compared to 5 percent at this time a year ago.
He said there usually is a spike in students out for flu in mid-winter, but this is atypical for October.
This week, the highest absentee rate was seen at the high school, where 120 to 130 kids, about 20 percent, were out. The middle school was missing 12 percent to 13 percent of its students, better than the 18 percent rate the week before. The elementary school was at 14 percent to 17 percent in absences.
DiRocco said it would take a rate of about 30 percent before officials would consider closing schools.
In Milton, a school spokesperson said just under 16 percent of students called in sick on Thursday, more than twice the number who did not come to school last Friday when the absentee rate was 7 percent.
On the other hand, Wesley Knapp, superintendent of the Midd-West School District, said absenteeism rates are staying steady at about 10 percent.
“Our attendance is just as normal as it ever was,” he said. “Tomorrow could change. But we monitor it each day, and we’ve been very fortunate. There is no unusual absenteeism at all.”
In Mifflinburg, things are better now than they were a week ago. On Thursday, 125 students called in, but that is substantially fewer than the number of students who called in sick last week, a spokesperson said.
