Dear Parent,

We have completed our first few days of school and it is wonderful to have your children

back in the building. With all the joy they bring back to the building they also bring some germs.

At school, as we have done in the past, our classrooms are supplied with Kleenex, hand sanitizer,

Clorox disinfecting wipes, and disinfectant spray bottles.

Our staff is taking extra efforts to ensure that places like door handles, desks, etc… where

germs could be are cleaned as often as possible. Our children are instructed on how to cough into

their arm rather than their hands, to use Kleenex, and to wash their hands often throughout the

school day.

All these efforts have been helpful in keeping our flu cases low in the past few years. But

this year has introduced a new concern H1N1 Flu that was mislabeled the Swine Flu early on.

While the H1N1 flu has swine characteristics in it, we know that eating pork and pork products has

no connection to the flu. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has issued guidelines for public

schools to follow. Enclosed is the parent handout of those guidelines produced by the CDC with

what we should all do at home with our children. It also addresses if you have a child or family

member that is at high risk for flu, like someone with a lung condition such as asthma.

hand rub. You can set a good example by doing this yourself.

utensils, and to cover their coughs and sneezes with tissues. Covering up their coughs

or sneezes using the elbow, arm, or sleeve instead of the hand when a tissue is

unavailable.

degrees Fahrenheit, 37.8 degrees Celsius or greater), cough, sore throat, a runny or

stuffy nose, body aches, headache, and feeling very tired. Some people may also

vomit or have diarrhea.

do not have signs of fever, without using fever-reducing drugs. Keeping children

with a fever at home will reduce the number of people who may get infected.

At school we have a set of procedures to follow from the CDC as well. The student or staff

member with a fever and flu symptoms is to stay home at least 24 hours after they no longer have a

fever. When you have a fever you are most likely shedding flu virus at a very high rate making you

contagious. At school we are instructed that if any person exhibits flu symptoms and a fever they

are taken out of class until they can be taken home. We have purchased N95 filter masks for those

identified with flu symptoms and fever to help contain those viruses while they wait to go home.

We have set up a flu room for those identified to rest in until they can be transported home.

of Health and instruct us on further actions we are to take to prevent the spread of flu. For more

the flu. We will notify you of any additional changes to our school’s strategy to prevent the spread

of flu.

We are working closely with the state and county health departments to monitor flu

conditions and make decisions about the best steps to take concerning schools. We will keep you

updated with new information as it becomes available.

We are in this together and with your help and our actions we hope to keep the flu

problem to a minimum at Westwood. Your help is critical in ensuring our children will be

protected from this new strain of flu, plus the regular seasonal flu. Information on flu shots will

be distributed as soon as we are notified.

Sincerely,

Kirk Ahrends, Superintendent

To help keep you informed we have teamed up with the Snowcap service to send you

affecting you or our school activities. No more waiting by the television or radio!

To sign up, just look for the cell phone and laptop on the Snowcap website, click on the

button next to school, type Westwood in the blank, click on the search button, select Westwood

from the choice list, then complete the contact information on the next page.

Once you’ve completed signing up, you will receive a verification text and/or email.

Follow those links to activate your registration(s). Each email and cell number must be activated

before you will receive alerts. For activation help, you can call SNOWCAP Support at

712.202.1574.

We hope this will give you another method of keeping informed about weather

announcements at our school.

Some of you have been sharing your garden goodies, tomatoes and cucumbers with our

lunch program. Those extra items make a special treat for the kids. Any extra garden items can

be dropped off at the school kitchen. Thank you for your generosity.