GENESEO, NY — Geneseo Central School was experiencing an exceptionally high rate of student absenteeism early this week because of contagious sickness. Superintendent Tim Hayes reports that the school had 20 percent of its students absent Monday and 23 percent Tuesday. The Tuesday number in K-12 was 210 out of a population of 922.

“It is abnormally high,” Hayes said. “We haven’t diagnosed and tested anybody, but we definitely have flu in the school and flu in the area.”

Hayes is hesitant to attribute any specific fraction of the absences to the H1N1 flu. “We know we have flu, but we also know we have a lot of other stuff that’s going around,” he advised. “We have kids out for just a day and others who are out for three or four or five.”

A letter which went home to parents of students on Tuesday thanks them for the extra attention they have taken in keeping children who exhibit flu-like symptoms home from school as as a way of limiting flu exposure to healthy individuals.

The school is assuming that some of the cases of sickness are indeed H1N1, but also acknowledges an upswing in other illnesses not related to the flu virus. Confirmed cases of H1N1 do not mean that a school district will be closed. School dismissal is not recommended unless absenteeism of students or staff makes it impossible to maintain a normal functioning or safe environment, the letter states.

Hayes noted that sickness thus far has not impacted school staff to any large extent.

Livingston County Director of Public Health Joan Ellison reports that her department and the school districts have been in close communication since spring, discussing H1N1 and precautions which should be taken.

Ellison confirms that there is an increase in absenteeism in several Livingston County schools. “We have asked parents to be diligent in keeping their child home if he or she is ill,” Ellison  said. “If the child is ill and that’s what they’re doing, that’s what we want.”

At this time, the high absent rate may be viewed from the perspective of parents taking the advice to heart — and therefore is certainly no cause for alarm or panic, Ellison emphasizes. “None of the schools have indicated that they are not able to educate,” Ellison clarified. “The faculty is there and things are running smoothly.”

Still, there is no doubt that H1N1 has struck Livingston County.

“It is a little early for seasonal flu, so if an individual has flu symptoms — more than coughing and sneezing — it is probably H1N1. But everybody walking around with a cough and a sniffle does not have H1N1,” Ellison said.

Ellison and the school superintendents have theorized scenarios in which it would no longer serve a purpose to have schools open, but no such discussions are underway at this time. If closure does occur, it will be on a school-by-school basis with the decision made jointly by Ellison and the superintendent. Any such decision will also take into consideration the frequency of sickness in the community at large.

The decision to close any school would be based on “the whole picture,” Ellison explained.

The Livingston County Health Department expects to have enough of the H1N1 vaccine to conduct a vaccination clinic for students by mid-November.