High Sickness Numbers In Jackson Schools, Director Monitoring

Illness spreading through Jackson County Schools this week, especially among faculty and staff.

Director of Schools Jason Hardy said he considered closing schools for a day. Hardy said he spoke with other district directors and everyone is closely monitoring the situation.

“Our numbers aren’t to that level yet, but we’re going to keep an eye on it,” Hardy said. ” Especially listened, sometimes the adults, you know, it’s really hard to have school if you don’t have enough adults. The numbers aren’t as bad as they’ve been in the past when we’ve shut down, so hopefully it doesn’t get to that.”

Dodson Branch Principal Brian Lee said 12 percent of students missed school due to sickness Thursday. He said he hopes the time off over the weekend allows staff to recuperate and numbers begin to stabilize.

“It makes it difficult to try to sometimes make sure that they’re getting all that they need,” Lee said. “We’re keeping up with attendance and everything, so we do want to think of that.”

Lee said this is the busiest time of year as students gear up for standardized testing. He said stabilizing attendance will be important during the home stretch of the year.

Jackson County High School Health Coordinator Jennifer Scott said illness in schools usually starts with younger students and cycles upward. She said it has reached the point in the cycle where teachers are heavily affected, but the school plans to keep a close eye on attendance and look for ways to mitigate teacher absences.