BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – After a rush of Flu A, Flu B, and strep caused attendance to drop to 85% district-wide in Edmonson County, Superintendent Brian Alexander knew it was time to take action.
“We made a decision to go ahead and close school for Monday and Tuesday of this week,” Alexander said. “Thanksgiving break and the next weekend gives us a chance for a nine-day separation and opportunity to come into the buildings and deep clean.”
With the district already starting late due to construction, Alexander said he knew using the Non-Traditional Instruction days was the right call.
“Every school district gets 10 days of non-traditional instruction or NTI. But we decided to go ahead and just utilize those two days in an effort to keep our lifestyle for students and our closing day for staff at the same place,” Alexander said.
Alexander says that, as of right now, he sees no reason to enforce any masking in schools, and assures parents there’s nothing to worry about.
“We’re doing deep cleaning right now. Electrostatic cleaning with bleach throughout all of our schools, doorknobs, door, handles, desktops, things like that,” Alexander said. “We’re gonna make sure that we’re cleaning those throughout the day, multiple times, to try to make sure that we don’t spread germs.”
When asked if he’d recommend other schools use NTI days to help the spread of flu, Alexander said he’d never tell anyone what to do, but this is what worked for Edmonson County.
“We want to make sure that everyone is healthy. We want to make sure that everyone is safe, and has the opportunity for high-quality education,” Alexander said.
Students can expect to be back in school, and hopefully germ-free, Monday, November 28.
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