Flint school closes for the rest of week due to illness

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    FLINT, MI (WJRT) — A mid-Michigan charter school has cancelled class for the rest of the week due to an unspecified illness.

School officials did not confirm to ABC12 what illness is affecting students.

Richfield Public School Academy in Flint also moved a scheduled JV basketball game to a different building.

The district says it plans to deep clean both school buildings before students return.

“If you’re on the janitorial staff you have to do a lot of redundant cleaning,” said Blake Verdun, marketing director of White Glove Cleaning.

Verdun understands there is a method when deep cleaning to ward off pesky germs.

“You have to do it repetitively during the months of December through March cause that’s when the flu virus really takes hold,” Verdun said.

The CDC tells us there is a difference between cleaning, disinfecting and sanitizing. Cleaning removes germs, dirt and impurities from surfaces or objects. Disinfecting kills germs on surfaces or objects. Sanitizing lowers the number of germs on surfaces or objects to a safe level. A disinfectant with chlorine-based bleach should kill the germs.

“Do the light switches. Do the door handles, computers, the mouse pad, keyboard, desk,” Verdun said. “A lot of times they don’t have the windows open so you’re containing it inside there.”

Schools have a big challenge in trying to keep their buildings clean and free of any harmful germs, but sometimes closing school is the best option in the long run.

“All of a sudden you get three or four kids with the flu and sometimes they’re scared that there might be an epidemic, and all of a sudden the school could be shutdown for a week or so,” Verdun said. “So they might shut it down for a day to try and go in and disinfect the place.”

ABC12 called Mid-Michigan county health departments to see how they’re doing this year with school illnesses.

Genesee, Saginaw and Bay Counties did not respond to our request.

Shiawassee and Midland counties say they each have no reported school closings because of illness this year or even before Christmas.

Midland County’s health director said they’ve had normal, seasonal illness levels but nothing to the point of a large outbreak.

A certain percent of the school’s student population must attend class
to receive the full amount of state aid in Michigan.

That means, if lots of students are sick, keeping kids home might be the right move.

Under state law, districts are allowed six cancelled days due to conditions beyond their control. These are often ‘snow days’ but cancelling school for other reasons, such as temperature and illness would apply, too.

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