Burr & Burton Closes Because Of Flu

(Host) Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester is closed today because so many students and faculty are out sick.

VPR's Ross Sneyd has more.

(Sneyd) Burr and Burton saw the wave of suspected swine flu begin to form late last week when almost three dozen students were out sick.

By early this week, the wave began to crash over the student population and faculty - 130 out sick on Monday, as many as 160 on Wednesday.

Here's headmaster Mark Tashjian.

(Tashjian) "At a certain point you start to realize it's very difficult to move forward educationally with that many students absent and then with some faculty members out, as well. So we thought the best thing to do would be to shut down and give the school really a four-day weekend for everybody to, I hope, get healthy and reduce the spread of infection."

(Sneyd) Burr and Burton has a student body of 700, so about a quarter of its students are ill with what the school believes is swine flu.

The Health Department says that's likely the cause because swine flu has become widespread throughout Vermont.

The state leaves it up to individual schools to decide whether to close.

For VPR News, I'm Ross Sneyd