Published: October 19, 2009 08:24 pm      

Trinidad schools to close for rest of week

Trinidad Independent School District officials are hoping to stop the influenza from spreading any further.

The school will be closed from Tuesday until Friday, TISD Superintendent David Atkeisson said.

“We want to take the opportunity to break the cycle,” he said.

Atkeisson said 21 percent of the district’s 192 students were out sick Monday. He said the school does not have any confirmed cases of H1N1, but several cases of influenza type A have been confirmed.

“We know there are some more kids that are not presenting a fever, but don’t feel well,” Atkeisson said. “We just want to give them a chance to get well.”

He said district employees will clean the school from top-to-bottom before classes resume next Monday.

“We are going to be extra thorough with disinfecting,” Atkeisson said.

He said until last Thursday, attendance was really good. Atkeisson said 10 percent of the district’s students were out sick when school let out for the weekend.

“It doubled on us over the weekend,” he said.

Atkeisson said TISD will meet state compulsory attendance requirements by using two bad weather days, and applying for a waiver from the Texas Education Agency.

He said due to the high rate of flu cases, he doesn’t see any difficulties with having the waiver approved.

“All indications we’ve gotten from TEA is its just a formality,” Atkeisson said.

At press time, no other school districts in Henderson County have released plans to close.