Extra Credit

State officials advise on when to close schools because of swine flu

Districts should close schools based on recommendations from local health departments, the Texas Education Agency advises. The Texas health department recommends that small districts close if one school is closed, medium districts close if two campuses are closed and that large districts be considered on a case-by-case basis, according to a letter sent to school leaders today.

Dallas, Houston, Wichita Falls and Corpus Christi closed some of their campuses today because of swine flu concerns. Fort Worth is the largest of six districts closed in the state.

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Wichita Falls school closure

Southern Hills Elementary in the Wichita Falls school district is closed. The Wichita County Health Department is investigating whether two students have the swine flu. The health department notified the school district that the family was in contact with a grandfather who has a confirmed swine flu in Amarillo. To read the press release, go here.

Houston ISD closes two schools because of swine flu concerns

Harvard Elementary and Hamilton Middle schools were closed today after three probable cases of swine flu were reported, which included two at Harvard.

Read post below for more information on Texas school closings.

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Dallas ISD closes school because of swine flu

Today officials closed Daniel Webster Elementary after a confirmed case of swine flu involving a student. School district spokeswoman Libby Daniels said the rest of the district is open. "We are taking our cues from the Dallas County health department on how to proceed," Daniels said.

The school will remain open throughout the day as parents pick up their children. It will be closed at least until May 11.

As of yesterday, Dallas County had 11 probable cases and three confirmed. An update is expected this afternoon. Webster is the first case involving a Dallas school district student.

The Tarrant County Health Department advised the Fort Worth school district to close until at least May 8. Dr. Sandra Parker, medical director of the department, said she advised such because of the number of cases of high probable cases, four at the time. With 80,000 students, she said it was best to close the district to prevent any further spreading of the highly communicable disease that is new to humans.

Parker said the guidance from federal officials on when to close schools is changing daily as the illness spreads.

Fort Worth school board president said there was no right decision that could be made in closing schools or keeping them open. He said officials understood that closing the 144 campuses would be an inconvenience to many parents and employers, but he said that if the swine flu spread further it had the potential to sicken hundreds of children.

"My feeling is that if we're going to make a mistake, we're going to make a mistake on the side of safety for our students and our children," he said.

Fort Worth is the largest district in the state to close because of swine flu concerns. The 7,000-student Cleburne school district closed its schools after four probable cases in the high school were reported.

So far, six Texas school districts have closed completely.

“With school closings, if there is one confirmed case, the school needs to close,” said Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, spokeswoman for TEA. “If  you wait until there are two or three cases, it’s really too late.” Also, if there are highly probable cases, schools are considering closures.

“We are telling our schools to work closely with their local health departments,” she said. Texas public health officials are advising against large gatherings of people such as UIL events. “It seemed like it would be the safest course action,” she said, referring to actions to the canceling of UIL events.

The Austin school district closed its Lucy Read pre-kindergarten center yesterday after a probable case involving a 5-year-old was reported there.

The CDC is reporting 26 confirmed human cases of swine flu in Texas. Texas updates are available here.

The CDC update is available here.

Arlington schools stay open, cancel field trips

Arlington school officials held a staff meeting late Wednesday night to discuss the district's response to public health concerns about swine flu and decided to continue operating on a regular school schedule.

They did, however, choose to cancel any class field trips as a precaution. Spokeswoman Veronica Sopher said administrators based their decisions on the fact that no suspected cases have been reported from district campuses.

"We were told, according to the Arlington emergency management office, there are no confirmed or suspected cases in the Arlington ISD," she said.

The district will post any further developments on its Web site.

- Traci Shurley

Flu worries close four Fort Worth schools

Four Fort Worth schools will be closed at least through May 11 because of swine influenza concerns. They are McLean Middle, McLean 6th, South Hills Elementary and Westcliff Elementary.

 -- Eva Ayala

Lunch prices to go up at Mansfield schools

Providing school lunches is getting more and more expensive and officials at Mansfield schools say the situation is forcing them to raise prices. 

On Tuesday night, school trustees approved a 25 cent increase in student lunch prices for the 2009-2010 school year, bringing the price of a elementary school lunch to $2 and a secondary school lunch to $2.25.

Administrators said the higher prices are needed to cope with increases in the price of food and paper supplies. They also cite changes to the state’s school nutrition policy, which eliminates the sale of some pre-packaged items because of fat and sugar levels and bans the use of fryers, as a factor.

The price change will not affect students on the federal free and reduced-price lunch program. Prices for adults meals will also go up from $2.60 to $3. The last time Mansfield increased lunch prices was at least six years ago, officials said.

Keller schools also recently raised their prices.

- Traci Shurley

Birdville students get hands-on career experience

Students in high school career and technical programs are getting a jump-start on careers. Students in the Birdville school district's Career and Technology Education program are getting hands-on experience in a number of fields, including culinary arts, health science technology and media technology. Here's a sampling of videos created by students in the Birdville media technology program, including a grand prize winner at South-by-Southwest this year.

Read the full report here.

When should schools close amid swine flu concerns?

That was the main question nearly 1,400 school leaders from around the country asked the federal officials during a conference call on swine flu yesterday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly suggests closing a school if a student has a confirmed case or a suspected case epidemiologically linked to a confirmed case. If no additional suspected or confirmed cases are reported from the school in seven days, then a school could reopen, according to guidelines the CDC has posted for official here.

Districts that do close schools should contact the Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools (OSDFS) by e-mail, osdfs.safeschl@ed.gov, in addition to local public health authorities. School officials can also e-mail OSDFS with questions about the proper response to the swine influenza.

So far the Richardson school district has closed Canyon Creek Elementary School after a student was confirmed to have the illness. The Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City school district, near San Antonio, is closed for a week after three confirmed cases and about 10 suspected cases in the area. The Fort Worth school district has not closed McLean Middle School, at which a probable case has been identified in a 12-year-old girl. District officials said they had crews cleaning overnight Sunday to disinfect the school.

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Carroll graduation now an hour earlier than planned

Seniors, you've addressed and mailed out your graduation announcements and made dinner reservations already, right? But if you're a member of the Class of 2009 at Carroll Senior High School, you might have to alter those plans slightly. Commencement exercises on June 5 are now an hour earlier, at 6:30 p.m., because the field light poles had to be removed last week due to hairline cracks. But at least the ceremony is in the same place, Dragon Stadium, and on the same day.

Jessamy Brown