April 30, 2009 Emergency Consultation on Swine Flu

We had a meeting today regarding the district’s plans in dealing with swine flu. Karen Garza chaired the meeting. There were several HISD administrators present but only Evelyn Henry, Dick Lindsey, and Brad Bailey made significant contributions. The key points affecting employees are as follows:

· The decision to close schools will be made by the County Health Department after there is a confirmed case of swine flu. Schools closed will likely stay closed for at least week as there is a four-day incubation period before symptoms will appear. They want to make sure anyone exposed has had a chance to become symptomatic before anyone returns to school.

· If HISD closes a school because of multiple suspected cases and the CDC determines none are Swine Flu, the school may reopen immediately.

· Teachers who cannot go to work because a school is closed will not be docked either pay or time from their sick bank.

· Employees who stay home do to any illness while the school remains open will be docked a day from the sick leave bank.

· Employees with children at a closed school may attend work if they are not symptomatic.

We had less success dealing with the protocols for schools that have no full-time nurses. We asked this same question by e-mail on Tuesday and received no solid answers then either. As best as I can make out, school personnel will call a sick child’s parents. It is then the parent’s responsibility to get treatment. Even though there is a published protocol that states the a student who is even suspected of having the flu can only re-enter school the nurse, we were told that if the County clears the school, a child can return without going through a nurse. I guess in the mind of the district; that takes care of the problem of not having a nurse on-sight. Evelyn Henry also told us that if a school without a nurse made a request, she, or another member of her staff would go to that school to assist.

We ended our comments by stating that we have for years been calling for a full-time nurse on each campus and that the district needs to look at this crisis as a lesson for future budgeting decisions.