File photo (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

STUDENT ABSENTEEISM

Absenteeism on the rise across SD73 as flu season begins

Nov 29, 2022 | 4:19 PM

KAMLOOPS — As Royal Inland Hospital (RIH) reports an increase of children presenting with respiratory illnesses, the local school district has seen absenteeism increase in both elementary and secondary school settings. Dr. Todd Ring, Chief of Staff at RIH, stated that the early and more severe start to the flu season can be linked to a lack of common cold infections during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Absenteeism with the Kamloops-Thompson School District (SD73) has been on the rise since the beginning of November.

“We are tracking daily. The first two weeks of November were about 1-to-2 per cent, and then climbed to 5 per cent and then 7 per cent at the end of November. Are we seeing an escalating trend? We are,” stated SD73 Superintendent Rhonda Nixon.

Nixon notes that, thanks to two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ‘stay home’ messaging, more students and families are making the safer choice.

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“We are actually pleased that people are not brining sickness to school. We want people to be healthy and well and we want them to stay home when they aren’t well. Sometimes where in the past you and I might see people come to work and children come to school when they are sick, we are really emphasizing not to do that. We are not surprised to see the increasing trends, either,” said Nixon.

The absenteeism rate is also hitting the teaching ranks with upwards of 10 per cent missing time this past month.

“It does make a difference when we are short teachers and teachers have to be pulled to cover or miss their preparation time. It gets made up later but if you aren’t getting in the week you needed, it doesn’t help you right at that time to be prepared. That is a workload concern,” said Kamloops-Thompson Teachers Association President Darcy Martin.

While at this point the lack of teachers has not led to any fully canceled classes, it has forced the district to be flexible. Martin stated helping students catch up on missed time is adding pressure to the short staffed faculty.

“There is only so much you can do. And I think we learned during the pandemic that we can’t pressure learning and we cant make up for two years of lost time. Students will learn and they will develop and grow at their pace and our teachers are experts at helping them do that,” added Martin.

In speaking with Medical Health Officer Dr. Carol Fenton from Interior Health, the district was told it may get worse before it gets better.

“So far, what we are seeing are normal increases. We expect it to hold for a while. We do. Because she made the comment to us, ‘It’s cold and flu season, it is actually typical.’ We expect that these will be rising numbers potentially even in to January, February,” said Nixon.