GILROY
– As roughly 9,600 students returned to class Monday, state
education officials urged administrators, teachers and students to
do all they can to create a
”
Germ-free zone
”
and curb the spread of the flu.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – As roughly 9,600 students returned to class Monday, state education officials urged administrators, teachers and students to do all they can to create a “Germ-free zone” and curb the spread of the flu.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell is also working to restore state funding that would be lost due to a high number of flu-related absences.
“When students return from winter break, we want to redouble our efforts at keeping schools healthy,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell visited schools across the state last week to promote germ-free schools and the California Department of Education is distributing health information “tool kits” designed to give schools a booster shot in dealing with flu prevention.
Gilroy Unified School District can lose up to $36 per student per day for absences. District attendance officials have already reported unusually high numbers of students and teachers out of class in December due to the flu.
O’Connell outlined the procedures schools should follow if their student population has been hit hard by flu to avoid losing funds allocated for average daily attendance, which make up about 67 percent of GUSD’s total general fund budget.
Funding based on attendance gives schools an incentive to have students show up for class. But the California education code offers an exception to schools affected by disasters or epidemics.
School districts that experience a significant decrease in student attendance (with more than 10 percent absent) because of the flu are urged to work with county health officials to determine if the region has experienced an epidemic, O’Connell said.
“Schools are facing many challenges this winter season,” O’Connell said. “While we hope that every student stays healthy, I would like to remind schools that we are here to help if an outbreak of flu does severely affect their school attendance.”
District Attendance Officer Frank Valadez said he feels reassured by the possibility of a waiver for the state’s schools. If state officials decide to invoke the waiver, they would pay GUSD based on a typical attendance day in the month of October, Valadez said.
“It’s kind of like not reporting attendance for that period and then they just kind of give you attendance (funding) based on that day in October,” he said.
The last time a waiver was applied for GUSD was shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, when schools statewide feared low attendance.
District officials are in the process of counting flu-related absences but say that county-wide, absences are hovering at about 10 percent with no recent increase.
