West Plains, MO. – The Mountain View-Birch Tree R-III school district has canceled school on Friday, December 9, 2022 due to a wave of ill students and faculty absences. Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Don Christensen released a letter to parents about the cancellation on Thursday:
“Dear Parents,
This week our school district has been struggling with numerous illnesses among both students and staff members. It has gotten to the point where we now have a large percentage of both students and teachers absent due to illness. For the last two days, we have had to combine classes in some buildings in order to cover the number of teachers who are home sick. As a result of this rash of illness, The Mountain View-Birch Tree School District will not be in session tomorrow, Friday, December 9. Teachers will be sending home “Alternative Method of Instruction” (AMI) educational packets with students today. these will need to be completed and returned to school next week. Students who are absent today and do not receive their AMI packet can pick up the packet from their teacher next week and return it by the end of next week. Students who return the completed packet will be counted as “present” for attendance purposes on our AMI day tomorrow.
We will return to school on Monday, December 12. During the day off, our custodial staff will be working to clean and sanitize each building. All extra-curricular activities will take place as previously scheduled. Please do not send your child to school next week or to any school related activity if they are sick or running a fever.”
The Fall 2022 Flu season has been particularly bad in Missouri. The statewide count of influenza cases nearly doubled in the last two weeks of November. The week of the 19th had a total of 4,893 flu cases and the week of the 26th had a total of 8,256. The age group with the largest number of infections includes school age children and adults ages 18 to 24, accounting for over half of the laboratory positive cases, according to the Missouri Weekly Influenza Surveillance Report.
Cases of Influenza are spreading faster this year than in most recent years. The last time flu cases saw this height of infection was in February of 2020.
