Ness City Schools Close

[mcphilbrick]

Sickness Forces Ness City Schools to Cancel Classes


Udate:

There will be no school for the Ness City district tomorrow and Thursday. The superintendent blames sickness making its way throughout the area. Tuesday 33% of high school students stayed home sick. That number is 26% and growing at the grade school.

The superintendent says two days at home should give most kids the chance to feel better. Kids who aren't better by Friday will have a little longer weekend to recover. Students don't have to go to school Monday because of pre-scheduled teacher in-service.


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By Megahn Snyder (NESS CITY, Kan.)

The Ness City school district has so many sick kids the superintendent is thinking about calling off classes.

Almost a third of high school students and a fifth of elementary kids stayed home Monday. Superintendent Randall Jansonius says all the absences are getting close to disrupting the learning process. He says he's been in touch with officials at the county health department, it's still tough to figure out when the number of illnesses will come down.

We asked whether students were sick with the H1N1 Flu. Jansonius says without tests he doesn't know.

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Ness City Schools Close

Sick Students Force School District To Close Doors

(Ness City) -- An increasing number of students fighting the flu forces a Western Kansas school district to shut down.

Reporter: Rye Addis
Wednesday October 7, 2009 6:24 PM

An increasing number of students fighting the flu forces a Western Kansas school district to shut down.

Ness City High School had one-third of their students stay home yesterday with flu-like symptoms. With so many gone, it was beginning to disrupt the learning process.

After discussions with the Ness County Health Department, the district decided to close its doors for two days and reopen on Friday. Community members say they have never seen so many students ill or seen flu season come so early.

"I thought it was awfully early in the year to have kids out for sickness," says Larry Benedict of Ness City. "I didn't think it was supposed to be until maybe November."

The district's superintendent, Randall Jansonius, says there is no reason to believe this sudden outbreak is the H1N1 virus.

http://www.kake.com/kansas/headlines/63704662.html#