As an unusually dangerous flu season reached its peak in New Mexico last week, classrooms were empty at Española Middle School.
On Feb. 5, 125 middle school students were absent because of the influenza virus or flu-like symptoms, Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez said.
The next day, 150 students were absent, she said. On Feb. 7, 192 students were absent in the morning, and about 35 more students left before the end of the day.
Española Middle School Principal Julie Gutierrez, no relation, said she had 18 staff members absent on Feb. 7.
Some teachers had influenza, others had bronchitis, she said. One teacher has been sick for two full weeks.
That afternoon, the principal and the superintendent agreed to close the school for the rest of the week.
There were so few teachers, Julie Gutierrez said, she had to consolidate classes and it was becoming unsafe to have so many students and so few teachers to look after them.
“I had six classes without subs today,” she said. “We’re just kind of babysitting. If we don’t have a lot of staff members here, we can’t supervise the kids, as well.”
In a Feb. 7 letter sent to all District parents, Bobbie Gutierrez wrote that more than a third — 200 of the 532 middle school students — were absent and nearly half of the school’s staff were absent.
“Closing school does not necessarily eliminate the spread of the flu,” she wrote. “However, it does allow students and staff already ill time to recuperate, and for school to resume with staff and students more fully present, resulting in instruction being less interrupted.”
The middle school closed for students and teachers on Feb. 8 and Feb. 9, though administrative and operations staff continued to work.
Classes resumed Monday.
“We sometimes have to close schools because we have so many student absences, and staff absences, that instruction becomes ineffective,” Bobbie Gutierrez told the School Board, Feb. 7. “We felt that we reached that point here, today.”
Several teachers in other schools were also out sick, which prevented District officials from finding substitute teachers, she said.
District officials hoped classes would resume Monday, after teachers and staff had time to recover — which it did.
Under a directive from the federal Centers for Disease Control, teams of workers sanitized door handles, tables, chairs and any other surfaces that might harbor influenza.
Two custodians were also out sick as of Feb. 7, Gutierrez said, so some maintenance employees helped clean.
Starting on Feb. 7, six school custodians split up, to clean 29 rooms across the middle school, Custodian Leonard Atencio said.
He, Bobbie Gutierrez and Julie Gutierrez have all worked in education for more than a decade, and each said they’ve never seen a school in Española close because of an illness, before.
As of the end of January, 18 New Mexicans have died from the flu and 72 have died from pneumonia, so far, this flu season, according to the state Department of Health.
Department officials told Bobbie Gutierrez and other superintendents around the state, in a Jan. 26 conference call, that the flu epidemic in New Mexico would reach its peak in two to three weeks. That means they were expecting the peak to occur either on Feb. 9 or Friday.
Board President Ruben Archuleta, who works at the Española Hospital, said on Feb. 7, that all area hospitals were at capacity with the flu.
Children younger than five years old, people older than 65, pregnant women, Native Americans, and people with asthma, diabetes, lung or heart disease are at an especially high risk for complications from the flu, according to the Department.
Other schools open
During the Feb. 7 Board meeting, Bobbie Gutierrez did not rule out the possibility that other Española schools could close because of the flu.
“We will continue to monitor, and in schools where the numbers seem to be getting too high, we will close schools for a day or two, if necessary,” she said.
Bobbie Gutierrez said she will keep Board members informed, in the event that District officials need to close any other schools.
The local CVS pharmacy, Walgreens and Wal-Mart are selling flu shots, according to an online map published by HealthMap Vaccine Finder.