Despite days off, local schools still struggling with illness

Superintendents at Whitley County’s three public school districts are keeping a close eye on growing absenteeism, among students and staff, caused by a triple whammy of seemingly pervasive illnesses across the area.

Scott Paul, Superintendent at the Whitley County School System, the county’s largest school district, said Tuesday he’s hoping the decision to cancel classes Monday and Tuesday will pay off today when students and teachers resume classes.

“Usually we see about 94 percent attendance rate this time of year. Last Friday, it was at 89.5 percent so we had to do something,” Paul said. “The biggest factor was when we saw our high school was around 87 percent. That tells us this is countywide.”

School systems typically do not like to remain in session when attendance drops because it has a negative effect on state per-pupil funding that is based on average daily attendance through the school year. Paul said another problem is finding an appropriate number of substitutes to fill in for teachers and buss drivers who are ill.

“We had 28 teachers out, so yeah, that becomes a problem,” Paul said.

Paul said pushing through and having classes anyway is problematic for other reasons too. It helps to spread illness and exacerbates the situation. Also, many times students will show up who really should be at home.

“A lot of times you will get kids who aren’t healthy enough to be there. They aren’t learning anything.”

Dave Cox, Superintendent at Corbin Independent Schools, said a persistent stomach virus, strep throat and influenza (commonly known as “flu”) are the main reasons the school system was forced to cancel classes last Friday and Monday. Corbin was in session Tuesday. Cox said full attendance numbers were slow to come in, but with six grades reporting, it was running about 90 percent. Fourteen teachers were also out, and Cox said school officials had to scramble to fill those vacancies.

“It does not appear to be getting appreciably better right now,” Cox said. “The alarming thing for us is it’s just not in one school, but it is spread out fairly equally among the five schools.”

Cox said officials plan to evaluate attendance numbers today in order to determine the next course of action.

The problem has not been so pronounced in Williamsburg. Classes were in session Tuesday and Superintendent Amon Couch said the school system had missed only three days so far for illness. Attendance Tuesday was at about 92 percent.

“Our goal is always around 95 percent, so we are watching it real close,” he said. “As of right now, we have no plan to cancel classes. But if it’s bad again, we’ll have to look at it.”

Couch said cancelling is more effective if the county’s three districts attempt to coordinate which days they are going to cancel classes. He said he’s had communication with other superintendents regarding the issue.

“I feel like we could get more bang for our buck that way,” Couch said.

All three superintendents said they believed the unseasonably warm weather was a significant factor in the spread of illness.

Paul said Whitley County has missed eight days so far this school year, three for weather and four due to illness. Williamsburg has missed three days for sickness. Corbin has missed four days for illness. Planned graduation dates for all three districts have not yet been affected.