As More Schools Close Due To Swine Flu, Others Reopen

As more schools throughout the city are shuttered in an attempt to get in front of the spread of the H1N1 virus (also known as the swine flu), the city's first schools that were closed have reopened for classes.

As of Wednesday, May 27, Special Education School 811 at Building 822 in St. Albans, P.S. 369 in Downtown Brooklyn, P.S. 231's program at P.S./I.S. 180 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, P.S. 128 in Manhattan and P.S. 68 in the Bronx are scheduled to be closed until June 1, and P.S. 161 in Manhattan will be closed until June 2.

P.S. 58 in Maspeth, P.S./I.S. 384 in Bushwick, P.S. 160 in Brooklyn, P.S. 30 and P.S. 138 in Manhattan all reopened today, May 28; I.S. 73 in Maspeth, P.S. 143 in Corona, P.S. 203 in Bayside, P.S./I.S. 499 in Flushing, M.S. 113 in Brooklyn and P.S. 11 in the Bronx all reopened yesterday, May 27.

Several more charter and private schools have also closed their doors, including the Better Learning Charter School in the Bronx, the Rudolf Steiner School in Manhattan, and several Brooklyn yeshivas including all campuses of Yeshiva Shaarei Torah.

Meanwhile, I.S. 5 in Elmhurst and P.S. 16 in Corona (along with P9 and P255, the District 75 schools housed at those facilities) were the first schools to reopen on Friday, May 22, after being closed for decontamina- tion.

They were followed on Tuesday, May 26 by P.S. 19, P.S. 32, P.S. 35, P.S. 107, P.S. 130, P.S. 209, P.S. 242, I.S. 25, I.S. 238, J.H.S. 74 and M.S. 158 in Queens, in addition to several other schools throughout the city.

Attendance varies

Also on Thursday, the Department of Education began to publish attendance rates for all city schools online.

On Tuesday, May 26, 82.6 percent of students attended one of the approximately 1,500 city schools that remained open for classes, based on the Times Newsweekly's calculation of DOE statistics.

On Wednesday, May 27, the DOE claimed an 83.2-percent attendance rate as of about 6:30 p.m.

DOH: Cases on the rise The school reopenings come while the city Department of Health (DOH) claims that cases are increasing.

"Novel H1N1 influenza is now widespread in New York City," a DOH bulletin issued May 24 claimed. "As expected, since there are more persons infected, hospitalized and critically ill cases are also increasing."

Since the DOH is seeing very few cases of seasonal influenza, the agency has directed all medical care facilities citywide to assume that residents with flu-like symptoms have the H1N1 virus.

"Because it is not possible to prevent community transmission of influenza and mild illness at this time," the bulletin adds, the Health Department is focusing its efforts on reducing and preventing severe outcomes due to infection with novel H1N1 influenza."