Flu outbreak closes Prospect Charter School for the week

Dec. 7—Prospect Charter School canceled classes and all campus activities for the week due to a flu outbreak, its superintendent said.

The school's leader, Daye Stone, reported Wednesday that 50% of its 220 students had called in sick, and 30% of its 45-member staff had done the same, with the vast majority of both camps saying they were infected with the flu.

"We did this all in the name of student and staff safety," Stone said.

Prospect officials have been in touch with Jackson County Public Health.

"Influenza A seems to be the predominant thing that is going around," Stone said. "It's hard to known exactly what it is, but that's what we're being told."

Prospect Charter School's Facebook page Tuesday said that after an "increase of student and faculty illness in our community," all students were released at 12:30 p.m. that day. Additionally, all athletics and after-school activities were canceled for the week and weekend, the post stated.

Stone said school began normally Tuesday, but "an onslaught" of students developed symptoms, and they were sent home.

"The numbers were strikingly surprising," Stone said. "We have days built into the calendar for these kind of things, and student safety trumps everything else that we do. We just said, 'Let's get staff and students home.'"

For now, administrators such as Stone are working remotely.

"We pretty much work from home, even when we're sick, because we don't have any backup," he said.

He added that abatement steps are being taken to sanitize the school in time for an expected return to class Dec. 11.

"We'll take a straw poll of all of our staff on Sunday to make sure folks are symptom-free prior to return," Stone said. "We're going to have to monitor (students), obviously."

A call home to parents will remind them to check their child's symptoms before Monday. Even if there is "a day or two" with fewer students, Stone said, Prospect would likely be able to operate normally if there are enough staff who can work.

"We'll do what we can to make sure the risk is mitigated," Stone said.

Reach reporter Kevin Opsahl at 541-776-4476 or kopsahl@rosebudmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KevJourno.