Bradford Area School District is all set for its defense against
swine flu.
“We got (the vaccines) several weeks ago, and we have inoculated
students with all the consent forms,” BASD Superintendent Sandra
Romanowski said Friday afternoon. “I believe we had only about 400
that requested the vaccine.”
A day prior, the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford revealed a
decrease in its H1N1 cases after receiving the vaccine in early
November.
The younger children in primary school require two vaccines,
according to the superintendent. Still, the district plans to
release several unused vaccines back to the Department of Health to
be reallocated to places where there’s a need.
“We were expecting more” participants, Romanowski said of the
vaccinations.
In what may come as a surprise, more high school students
received the H1N1 vaccine than younger students. However,
Romanowski believes many elementary-age children already missed
school to obtain outside vaccinations.
“I think a lot of our students had (the shot) when the Health
Department had the free shots,” she said.
When youths weren’t leaving the classroom to get vaccinated,
they were missing school time due to illness. Still, the absentee
numbers weren’t as bad as some might expect, according to
Romanowski.
“Last month, our attendance level was 90 percent,” the
superintendent said. “That’s what the state would like to see it
at. That’s the bench mark statewide.
“We like to keep it at 95 percent. It wasn’t as low as maybe
some other districts, but it could’ve been much worse. We’re seeing
it pretty much level off now.”
Romanowski noted that the district had about 94-percent
attendance in October. She credited school precautions such as
disinfectant, cleaning desks and handles and encouraging sick
students to stay home with helping curb the absentee numbers.
The administrator noted that she was told the district could
face another surge of flu cases later in the winter.
“Hopefully a lot more people are inoculated then, and it won’t
be as bad,” she said.
