Flu closes Cyrus MST School

by **North Star 1** October 29th 2009, 11:24 am

This school is only about 20 miles from my house, we deliver papers in that area every weekend.

Flu closes Cyrus MST School
By Chad Koenen

Flu-like symptoms brought an early end to school last week for students and staff at Cyrus Math, Science, and Technology School.

Cyrus MST Principal Dorothy Jenum said the decision to close school on Thursday and Friday stemmed from a high volume of the student and teacher population reporting flu-like symptoms. Jenum said approximately 22-25 percent of the student population was out sick last week, just one week after only a few of the 58 students enrolled at Cyrus MST were absent.

With such a sudden outbreak of flu-like symptoms, Jenum said the decision was made to close the school to allow all of the students and staff time to fully recover and lower the chance for a further outbreak of the flu.

"We felt like it was at a point where we should close and let the kids get well," she said.

Cyrus MST isn't alone in its battle with the flu as a number of area schools are currently dealing with high absentee rates due to flu-like symptoms.

After the long weekend break, Cyrus MST reopened its doors to students and staff on Monday as regularly scheduled.