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By Katherine Ullmer, Staff Writer Updated 11:00 AM Monday, October 26, 2009

DAYTON/XENIA— The four Dayton Christian Schools at the Dayton and Xenia campuses will be closed today, Monday, Oct. 26, due to higher than usual student absences last week from flu-like symptoms, said Carl Smith, assistant to the superintendent of the school system.

The system has about 1,450 students on its two campuses, Smith said.

School will be back in session tomorrow, he said.

“This is just a breather,” he said. Students were off school last Thursday and Friday because of in-service days, Smith said. He said in talking with health department officials and with information from the Centers for Disease Control, they learned that a five-day interval is best to try to cut down on the spread of the flu. By adding a day off Monday to the two days off last week and the two-day weekend, they would have that five-day period, Smith said.

He said he hopes the extra day will allow students who were sick to get better and that it will help prevent or slow more flu-like symptoms. At one point they had an 18 percent absence rate last week, which was higher than normal and seemed to be growing, he said. Without the two days off already last week, school officials wouldn’t have cancelled school today, he said.

Families were notified via e-mail Friday and via radio and TV announcements today, he said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2341 or kullmere@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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