Mr. Nelson Joseph Lirette
October 27, 2009Industrial Boulevard closed for Chabert levee construction
October 29, 2009Centerville High School will serve as a dispensing site for a state Department of Health and Hospitals H1NI vaccination campaign, should the need be warranted.
The St. Mary Parish School Board signed a memo of agreement designating the school for use in the event of emergencies.
“We’ve been told that this fall promises to be a very challenging influenza season,” Superintendent Donald Aguillard said, “with both seasonal flu and novel H1N1 flu vaccination campaigns and potentially concomitant illness.”
Dr. Jimmy Guidry, state health officer and DHH medical director, reportedly contacted Aguillard to inform him that the state DHH would provide funding for supplies, vaccines and personnel to implement the project should it be needed.
According to the agreement, Centerville High will serve as a location to “collect vaccine or medications from a regional or state location as directed, transport from that location to their facility and provide vaccines or medications to all employees and employee families following the guidelines provided for a specific threat incident.”
St. Mary Parish School Health Facilitator Lydia Duval said 600 students parishwide have been absent from school so far this school year with “flu-like symptoms.”
Duval said flu-related absences are common in early October, not generally as early as August.
“I’m not saying they all had the flu. I just know they were sick,” she said.
The school board’s policy requires children with fever to stay home until they are fever-free for 24 hours. In some cases, Duval said, children have missed as much as seven days of school while fighting the flu.
Children who become sick at school are separated from other students, given a mask to cover their mouth and nose and kept in a holding area until an adult arrives to check them out of school.
In fiscal matters, the board learned sales tax collections are now down 12.2 percent between July and Sept. 30.
The school board collected $3.841 million during the third quarter – $1.213 million in September, $1.359 million in August and $1.268 million in July – compared to the budgeted three-month figure of $4.199 million.
The school board’s new fiscal year began July 1, according to Chief Financial Officer Alton Perry.
The board also approved $99,982 to purchase furniture for the Morgan City Junior High School Library – $74,982.05 more than was originally approved by the board’s building committee. The board also approved an additional $4,800 to be spent to paint the exterior of the building.
Library Interiors Inc. of Metairie was chosen to outfit the library.
The school board also agreed to advertise the sale of its three closed schools on the parish’s westside – Thomas Gibbs, G.W. Hamilton, Mary Hines elementary schools.
