http://www.kcentv.com/story/26797296/parents-receive-letter-from-belton-school-about-student-who-flew-on-frontier-flight

So it seems two kids in the district were on the same
flight Monday as the newest Ebola patient. One goes
to Sparta, the other NBMS. Wow. Parents were notified today.

I wouldn't be worried unless they were sitting next to her and she was coughing on them or they shared drinks.

One at sparta Abd one at north belton. Chances of exposure are minimal but one confirmed case will likely shut down the district. There would be no way to stop the spread in a school without it.

Supposedly a news conference at 6:30. A friend said New braunfels isd shut down for 2 weeks with the h1n1 threat? Wow. Cherry, do you have kids at Sparta?

It got real. Real fast. Kids should not be allowed at school.

MIL has called to tell us. It's serious now. /sarcastic face.

No. I work for the district. I know what Yall know. Employees haven't been notified outside of what YALL have seen. Those are just my thoughts.

Poops it the fan in the BISD facebook page.

Would not want to be in the admin building tomorrow.

Interestingly, I set up the FB page originally for the district when i was there.

Interested in everyone's thoughts on whether or not you'd send your kids to school at this time knowing what everyone now knows.

They handled this poorly. They sat up there so smug and said there's absolutely no risk. Probably isn't but
she didn't alleviate fears, she basically said people were dumb for having any. Because they've dealt with pertussis, they are qualified to deal with this. I hope she loses her job. The bell county health official isn't even a doctor and doesn't Judge Burrows dress up as Santa for the Chisholm trail Christmas event?

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Interested in everyone's thoughts on whether or not you'd send your kids to school at this time knowing what everyone now knows.

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No because I still don't know much about it. I'd have to educate myself in the next few days to make a better decision. The three at the PC didn't instill confidence in me at all.

There is an intense conversation at casa de c-jags right now about the idea of sending the kids.

Kincannon lost me with her 2nd comment about "education is important, so send your kids," with no regard for parents' concern.

I enjoyed working for her, but she may have just signed her resignation letter.

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Regular school attendance is essential for students to make the most of their learning, and absences may disrupt a student's mastery of the materials.

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My daughter is blowing thru her pre-ap classes, but ok Susan.

I just read that the parents of the two kids are keeping the kids home for 21 days (the incubation period for ebola).

So the way ebola spreads is via direct contact with bodily fluids of someone who is sick. It's pretty similar to HIV in that regard, except that HIV doesn't live too well in saliva. So the kids would've had to probably have sat next to the lady on the plane, and had her cough either into a cut on their skin or into a mucous membrane such as their eyes. Or maybe gone to the bathroom after her, and she made a mess that they came into contact with. I think ebola can only live outside the body by itself for a few hours at the most (like on a desk or doorknob).

Since you're not contagious unless you've got symptoms, and since the kids aren't going to be at school, I wouldn't be too concerned. But I don't blame you if you want to keep them home for the rest of the week.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/15/shepard-smith-ebola_n_5992510.html

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There is an intense conversation at casa de c-jags right now about the idea of sending the kids.

Kincannon lost me with her 2nd comment about "education is important, so send your kids," with no regard for parents' concern.

I enjoyed working for her, but she may have just signed her resignation letter.

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I agree with this. My kids would not be going unless I knew they were 100% safe. Not this " low-risk" assessment based on the CDC. They have already screwed up enough to not instill nor deserve my trust.

It is probably an over reaction but when it comes to something like Ebola, I would rather over react and seem like an idiot than under react as our govt. has and be wrong about it spreading.

Also this smugness about it being more dangerous to drive to school or any of that crud is just plain BS. Those are inherent risks of getting out of bed each day, throw in a non-curable 70% death rate super virus and it changes my daily risk assessment.

And kudos to the parents of these kids if they are voluntarily keeping them home for 3 weeks. At least they realize the stress it is putting on not only the school but their kids as well to have that cloud hang over them. My prayers are for these families.

Sparta, north belton middle school and BECS will be closed tomorrow to deep clean and disinfect the shoots and busses. Cdc is reevaluating the health status of the patients. Just got the email.

I didn't see the presser, but I'm not gonna be too harsh on the supe

She probably has a pretty good grasp on the un-likelihood these kids are contagious (next to zero) and is simply trying to keep parents calm and avoid mass hysteria

The cleaning of the schools is probably for show and has no effect on any virus, which almost certainly does not exist at the school in the first place

Anyway, I don't think the supe was being cavalier, or doesn't take it seriously

Probably just trying to calm people down and may not have used the best words

I think the cleaning is a good idea. Schools are NOT cleaned as well as parents probably think. A good cleaning will help with other things that are transmitted and hopefully get parents to sent their kids back to school.

My classroom for instance is only mopped a couple of times a year. Desks are just cleaned at that same time. Teachers may use their own clorox wipes and swipe the desks regularly, but it is not done by the school staff at any district where I have worked. Once schools started contracting out for most maintenance, the level of deep cleaning pretty much vanished.

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I think the cleaning is a good idea. Schools are NOT cleaned as well as parents probably think. A good cleaning will help with other things that are transmitted and hopefully get parents to sent their kids back to school.

My classroom for instance is only mopped a couple of times a year. Desks are just cleaned at that same time. Teachers may use their own clorox wipes and swipe the desks regularly, but it is not done by the school staff at any district where I have worked. Once schools started contracting out for most maintenance, the level of deep cleaning pretty much vanished.

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Worked in some that were cleaned very well, others not so much. Los of different factors in play.

Most places I have worked, they sweep, empty trash, and run the buffer once a week so the halls shine. Not much else done except in the summer when rooms are emptied out, floors are stripped, rewaxed, and everything put back in. ONLY exception was when I was in Catholic schools run by Nuns. They are meticulous about clean.

Our custodial staff is excellent at my school. (One of the three) Tgey mop daily wipe all tables etc. today will give them a chance to get door knobs, equipment and handles. I'm with Pablo on how kincannon came across.

She says she's so frustrated with the cdc. The entire nation is. Duh.

Sorry. I'll have to fix my link to her midnight letter.

And now the volleyball games between NBMS and SBMS has been cancelled. Not because it's at NBMS, it's actually scheduled for SBMS. The campus they didn't close to clean.

Social media last night and this morning have been fun to watch.

Honor choir meeting at bhs tonight cancelled. IIRC, the honor choir is kids from all the elementary schools but because Sparta is closed, the meeting is
cancelled. There really was a better way to do this. At least football is on a bye this week. I wonder if it wasn't, if the opposing school would still play the game?

I don't mnow. I sort of feel like they should have shut everyone down until Monday to avoid the panic. I'm not worried about an outbreak but I think the public would have had more peace of mind

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I don't mnow. I sort of feel like they should have shut everyone down until Monday to avoid the panic. I'm not worried about an outbreak but I think the public would have had more peace of mind

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Or shutting down the schools when it was unnecessary could create more of a panic, not to mention the economic impact of parents staying home with their kiddos instead of going to work...

It's really a no win situation in scenarios like this for administrators. You're either going to under react and get blamed if kids get sick, or over react and get blamed if no one gets sick.

Belton often under reacts. There have been countless times in my last 14 years of having kids in the district where the district is the last in the area to delay or close due to weather. Most of those times I've used my own judgment and kept them home for a couple of hours. But this isn't weather related. Susan trained heavily under Vivian and the pattern of money first continues.

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There have been countless times in my last 14 years of having kids in the district where the district is the last in the area to delay or close due to weather.

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Funny story: I grew up in the panhandle, and in HS the district hired a new superintendent from South Texas. The first time it snowed, he canceled school. Problem was, it was 1/4" inch of snow and it was completely melted by noon.

He never canceled school for weather issues again.

Another presser at 2

Yep. And they haven't even started the cleaning of the three schools.

Nope. Health dept has been at admin all day figuring out HOW to clean them. I may be off again tomorrow.

No school for the 3 campuses tomorrow.