MILTON — The Milton School District took the federal government seriously when it recommended districts create pandemic plans a few years ago.
But officials had no idea their plan would be tested so strenuously so soon.
School district and Rock County Health Department officials say the plan was vital to the orderly closing of the high school May 4 and 5 for a case of swine flu.
“It’s kind of ironic that I believe the one district that was prepared for this situation was the one that had to close for a few days,” said Janet Zoellner, Rock County nursing director.
Zoellner was on the committee that helped prepare the plan in 2007 and 2008. The committee of school district staff, city officials, medical professionals, parents and other stakeholders spent more than a year creating the plan before it was approved by the school board in June, said Dianne Meyer, district business manager.
The wide cross-section represented on the committee helped make the plan successful, Zoellner said.
“The first thing that happened when they sat down to do a plan is they got all the people around the table that have a stake in making a crisis situation like this work,” she said.
The committee created a thick plan that includes resources, health information, an emergency contact list and even research about the 1918 flu pandemic.
It’s organized around a pyramid listing five response levels:
n Planning and preparation/prevention and mitigation
n Alert/preparedness
n Standby—surveillance and heightened awareness
n Activate school closures
n Recovery/reopening of schools
Each step includes procedures and communication suggestions, such as sample letters to parents and news releases.
The district hit the fourth and fifth levels when it closed Milton High School this month. Rock County called the district the night of Sunday, May 3, to tell it a high school student had a probable case of swine flu and the school would have to close for at least two days.
Superintendent Bernie Nikolay called the school board and administrators to put the plan in action, Meyer said.
The district activated its phone message system, calling every parent in the district to let them know about the closing. It worked with local media and put a notice on its Web site.
The plan helped staff stay calm, Meyer said.
Without the plan, “staff would be scrambling,” she said. “Everyone would be thinking, ‘What do I do now?’ I think at that point you have an opportunity to overlook things and maybe even create panic.”
This wasn’t the first time the district used the plan. The district canceled a kindergarten class at Milton East Elementary School for a day after most of the class came down with norovirus, Meyer said. It hired a cleaning service to disinfect the classroom.
The district also used the plan to deal with a widespread outbreak of strep throat. Both of the incidents rose to level three on the response chart, Meyer said.
The district learned a lot from its use of the plan this year, Meyer said.
For example, the plan did not address how to cook and distribute lunch if the high school, which holds the district’s kitchen, closed. The district asked students to bring bag lunches while the high school was closed.
The pandemic plan committee plans to meet once a year to review and update the document.
“The plan is not going to be foolproof, but it was of assistance,” Meyer said.
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The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction doesn’t require schools to create pandemic plans, but state and federal health officials strongly recommend it.
“There’s a growing recognition in the public health community that large-scale influenza outbreaks are a regular occurrence and they’re going to happen again,” said Doug White, DPI director of public services.
Many local districts don’t have pandemic plans, though they all have general emergency plans, said Dianne Meyer, business manager of the Milton School District. Some of them want to create plans but haven’t made it a priority, she said.
Since the swine flu outbreak, the DPI has seen great interest in its pandemic planning workshops, White said.
The Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials recently posted Milton’s plan to its Web site as a model for other districts. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also offers sample plans on its Web site.
But each plan must be tailored to the district’s needs, Meyer said.
“It’s not something you can put together in a couple of hours,” she said. “There are too many people involved, too much information.”