Clarkdale Attendance Center sees reduction in school absences

According to personnel with the Lauderdale County School District, The Clarkdale Attendance Center had a total of 383 absences last week due to the flu or parental cautionary measures.

“High school is what was affected the most at first, and we hardly had any cases that first day or two in the elementary and then of course as the siblings spread, it came down to the elementary, but middle and high the first part of the week the numbers were much higher in middle and high as far as absences go. By the end of the week, the elementary had pretty much caught up, and we had students out in all three schools.”Said Dr. Angela McHenry Clarkdale principal.

Since the flu virus was spreading around campus, The School district acted by bringing in outside help to properly disinfect the school.

“The district hired a cleaning service to come in over the weekend, and they went all over the campus and spent actually two days cleaning and disinfecting and sanitizing, and we just hope that has made a big difference for us.”Said Dr. Angela McHenry Clarkdale principal.

Since last week, the campus has already started seeing smaller absences across the campus.

“Today, we only have about 140 out, and we sent a few home that came to school sick or got sick soon after they got here but not very many just a handful, so 5 or 6 students.”Said Dr. Angela McHenry Clarkdale principal.

According to Dr. McHenry school sickness causes a delay in the curriculum development.

“We’ve kept kids busy, and kept kids busy with the important classwork, but as far as covering new material we’ve tried to hold off on the work until everybody gets back and, so it probably has had some effect on our instruction.”Said Dr. Angela McHenry Clarkdale principal.