School District Closes Over Flu Concerns

WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. -- The Columbia County Department of Health & Human Services closed the Wisconsin Dells School District after hundreds of students missed school with influenza-like illness, Madison television station WISC reported.

District administrator Chuck Whitsell said the district was closed Tuesday afternoon and will reopen Monday.

The school district said the high rate of absenteeism decreased the ability to maintain necessary school functioning. Whitsell said school closure is a reasonable and necessary step to prevent, suppress and control the influenza-like illness.

Whitsell said about one-third of the 580 high-school students were absent Monday or Tuesday. He said there are 1,120 middle-school and elementary-school students, and about 10 percent were also out.

Whitsell said last week was homecoming and that may have contributed to the situation because students didn't want to miss events and were coming into school sick.

This school closure order includes all school activities and all school gatherings until further notice. That includes all activity and athletic practices, contests and field trips, according to a news release from the Wisconsin Dells School District.

Parent-teacher conferences that were scheduled for the remaining days of this week will be rescheduled. School offices will remain open, if there are sufficient healthy personnel to keep them open and healthy teachers may work in their classrooms during this closure.

Whitsell said school days don't need to be made up when a school closes because of a health issue, but district officials might consider lengthening other school days to give students enough class time.