HOISINGTON — If your student is sick with the flu, plan on keeping them home longer — for up to seven days. That was the determination of the USD 431 Board of Education Monday night. 

According to Superintendent Bill Lowry, influenza has jumped up in the district, prompting him to propose the district increase the number of exclusion days families should observe when their student comes down with the flu. 

Currently, the district requires students to stay home until they’ve been fever free for 24 hours. But healthcare providers are reporting people remain contagious for some time after the fever subsides. The new recommendation, as determined by Lowry and District Nurse Stacy Dolecheck, is now a seven day exclusion period from the onset of symptoms and diagnosis. 

“According to the policy, you’re contagious for seven days,” Lowry said. “Now, the problem is, I think actually we’re contagious before we actually realize we have onset of influenza. A lot of people aren’t getting diagnosed until the third or fourth day.”

 On Monday, Lowry counted seven Roosevelt Elementary students out of school with influenza, and custodians would be disinfecting the school that night, he said. That’s because it is believed the disease spreads prior to diagnosis. 

Lowry did not indicate how many students at other district schools were out with the flu. Board member Keri Schremmer was in complete support of the proposal. Her daughter, she said, suffers from an auto-immune disorder, so flu season hits her family especially hard. 

“There are schools that have been hit harder than our school, but I feel its just starting to build here,” Lowry said. 

Becky Mooney raised the point that onset of symptoms was a key part of the policy, because some parents may not take their students to the doctor for diagnosis. 

The board was in agreement that the policy would go into effect immediately. If students are out for the whole week, they will need to get a doctor’s release to return to class, according to another existing district policy. 

“Hopefully, we’ll get through this phase fairly quickly,” Lowry said. “We’ll get to Spring break and hopefully it will help to have six days away from school and everybody.” 

Friday, there is no school for students of USD 431, and Spring Break will be from Monday, March 11 through Friday, March 15. Students return to school Monday, March 18. 

Electric car race

Students from the USD 431 Racing Team thanked the board for the support they’ve shown over the years to their electric car project. They recently purchased two frames and are busy restoring them from scratch. In addition , the club continues to maintain two other club cars. They hope to have the new cars completed in time for the first race this Spring. They reported they placed fourth last year in a state race. 

It’s been nearly two years ago they sponsored their first race at the Hoisington Activity Center. 

“The teams felt welcome and comfortable, and liked it,” one student said. “It was so good they moved the state sponsored race to Hoisington this year.”

They requested permission from the board to hold the 2019 Touchstone Energy West ElectroRally at the Activity Center on Thursday, April 11. They estimate there will be between 200 -250 people in attendance. 

Racers compete to see how many laps they can do around the course in one hour. Last year, Hoisington logged 58 laps in one hour.

The board granted their request, and then approved a motion to approve use of the facility on an annual basis, and asked the club to continue to give annual updates.