BAY VILLAGE, Ohio -- A Bay Village elementary school was closed Thursday and Friday (Jan. 30 and 31) due to increasing numbers of students calling in sick.
Superintendent Jodie Hausmann and Karen Derby-Lovell, the school district’s director of communications, spoke about the unusual situation that affected only Westerly Elementary School, which houses grades three and four.
“On Tuesday (Jan. 28), (the student illness calls) were in the high twenties,” said Hausmann. “We thought it would stabilize, but we saw no improvement.”
Extra cleaning was done in the school on both Monday and Tuesday nights (Jan. 27 and 28) by the cleaning staff as the call numbers began increasing. Making the whole situation even more unusual, she said, was that there were no illnesses reported among staff members.
“But it became clear we weren’t getting ahead on Wednesday (Jan. 29) when the call-ins reached about 124, which is 35 percent of the 355 students in the school,” said Derby-Lovell.
The call-ins revealed some strep throat and stomach problems, she noted, but the increasing numbers were the deciding factor. The decision was made on Wednesday to call in a professional company to clean and sanitize the entire school. And being close to a weekend gave the ill students four complete days to recover.
The cleaning company spent both Friday and Saturday (Jan. 31 and Feb. 1) cleaning every surface in the school with a disinfectant, then fogging all the rooms with a food-safe, EPA-approved sanitizing treatment.
As of today (Feb. 3), the number of call-ins had decreased from the peak of 124 (35 percent) to 47 (13 percent), Derby-Lovell said, even though the number is still higher than the average absence rate of 4 to 5 percent (14 to 18 students) a day for all of the previous school year.
Hausmann said the numbers will be carefully monitored and “hopefully we now have a fresh start.”
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