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School starts next week, so Superintendent Brian Osborne sent out the following letter to parents Thursday to warn them
about making sure kids do their best to avoid Swine Flu. While it says to stay home if sick, or be sent home, the
seven-day minimum for flu-like symptoms from last year is not in place.......yet.
August 27, 2009 Dear Parents and Guardians, As you know, flu can easily be spread from person to
person. Therefore, we are taking steps to reduce the spread of flu in the South Orange-Maplewood School District. We want
to keep our schools open to students and functioning in a normal manner during this flu season. But, we need your help to do this. We are working closely with the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC), the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, the New Jersey Department of Education and the local health
departments to monitor flu conditions and make decisions about the best steps to take concerning our schools. We will keep
you updated with new information as it becomes available. If the flu becomes more severe, we may take additional steps to prevent its circulation. For now we are doing everything we
can to keep our schools functioning as usual. Here are a few things you can do to help: • Teach your children to wash their hands often with soap and water or to use an alcohol-based hand rub. You can set a good example by doing this yourself.
• Teach
your children not to share personal items such as drinks, food or unwashed utensils. • Teach your children to
cover their coughs and sneezes with
tissues, or to cover up their coughs or sneezes using the elbow, arm or sleeve instead of the hand when a tissue is unavailable.
• Know
the signs and symptoms of the flu. Symptoms
of the flu include fever (100 degrees Fahrenheit, 37.8 degrees Celsius or greater), cough and/or sore throat. Symptoms may
also include runny or stuffy nose, body aches or headache. Some people may also vomit or have diarrhea. • Keep sick children at home for at least 24 hours after they no longer have fever or do not have signs of fever (without
the use of fever-reducing medicine). Keeping children at home when they have a fever will reduce the number of people who
may get infected. The CDC is not currently recommending the seven-day exclusion from school for children with influenza-like
illness (ILI) as it did this past spring. • Do not send children to school if they are sick. Any child who is determined to be sick while at school will be sent home. For more information, visit www.southorangemaplewood.org.
We will notify you of any additional changes to our district’s strategy to prevent the circulation of flu.www.flu.gov,
or call 1-800-CDC-INFO for the most current information about the flu. For more information about flu in our community and
what our district is doing, visit the district website at Sincerely, Brian Osborne
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