At a news conference on Tuesday afternoon, district officials said Delaware has a high number of "medically-fragile students," which is another reason for closing the school. The school educates many children with handicapping conditions.

While the school is closed, the custodial staff will thoroughly sanitize the building. The district is not testing for H1N1 flu; administrators don't care if it's H1N1 or Type A flu, since both need to be treated similarly.

Administrators said 10 schools in the district have higher-than-normal absentee rates this week. They have no black and white line for deciding how high an absentee rate must be before a school is closed. They'll evaluate each school and the sickness conditions individually.

The second highest absentee rate this week is Bingham with 18 percent. District officials expect other schools will close by the time the flu season is over.

Jean Grabeel, the district's coordinator of health services, says, since she joined the district in 1991, a school has not had to close because of a high illness rate.

District officials say schools will be getting their first shipments of H1N1 vaccine this week. They plan to start administering it to students next week with parental permissions. They also emphasized Tamiflu is widely available in Greene County to treat flu symptoms. Tamiflu also may prevent the spread of flu to a person who has taken it.
---- The district sent a letter home to parents of Delaware parents students to announce the dismissal.  It also sent a recorded telephone message to Delaware parents and staff around 2 p.m.  Here's the text of the telephone message, which is similar to the letter.

Hello. This is Beth Engelhart, principal at Delaware Elementary School. I am calling to notify parents and guardians that a decision has been made to dismiss school at Delaware for the remainder of the week. Our absentee rate has been elevated for three days due to students experiencing flu-like symptoms. That absentee rate coupled with the fact that Delaware has a high number of medically fragile students has resulted in the Springfield-Greene County Health Department advising us to close Delaware Wednesday, Oct. 14 through Friday, Oct. 16.  

To prevent further spread of illness, students and staff should remain home until classes resume Monday, Oct. 19.  Meantime custodial staff will thoroughly sanitize the building.

Currently, there are confirmed cases of Type A Influenza throughout the district. Please be assured that we are doing everything possible to minimize the impact of the flu and any other illness in our schools. We appreciate your cooperation and understanding during this time.

>As additional information is available it will be posted to the district Web page at www.springfieldpublicschoolsmo.org  or shared with you via another AlertNow telephone message. You may also obtain influenza updates on the Springfield-Greene County Health Department Web site at  www.springfieldmo.gov/health or visit flu.gov for more information.