The swine flu outbreak that closed nearly three dozen schools in the Chicago area amid early concerns about containing the new virus is adding a wrinkle to end-of-school calendars.
Several schools that closed for days are now canceling field trips, condensing lesson plans, rescheduling spring concerts and squeezing in missed track meets and lacrosse games before classes end.
But most schools do not plan to push the school year later with makeup days, local authorities said.
"You can't take a week's worth of instruction and now try to cram it into two or three weeks at the end of the year. It just doesn't work. ... Teachers were kind of forced to try and cover the big concepts," said Principal Stephen Maciejewski of Rotolo Middle School.
The Batavia school shut its doors for five days for what teens now call the "swine flu break" when a student showed symptoms of the H1N1 flu virus.
Though 8th graders will still make the traditional graduation trip to the town quarry, and science students will visit Fermilab, Maciejewski said other trips were shelved.
The scramble reveals the aftermath of the public health scare that continues to shut U.S. classrooms. Schools have been at the forefront of containing the flu's spread because children and young adults appear more susceptible to the strain of virus.
State education officials said the missed days will not be tacked on to the school year because, in most cases, a single school within a larger district shut down while the rest remained open.
An absence that affects an entire district must be recouped, but one that affects an individual school does not, said Marjorie Beck, a principal consultant with the state education agency.
As a result, some schools will have fewer than the 180 school days that are required by state law.
Heeding the lessons of the swine flu scare, officials with the Illinois State Board of Education want to change the law that governs how schools account for days missed during a public health crisis.
The proposed measure would allow schools that close because of a health emergency, such as the swine flu, to claim the full days of attendance and not jeopardize their share of state funding that's based, in part, on a daily head count, Beck said.
The current law allows a district to close a building for up to two days for such emergencies as a broken boiler or frozen pipes without taking a hit on their attendance, and ultimately, their state financing.
"We had a mechanism available for this type of situation, but the challenging point was the length of closure," Beck said.
Illinois health officials this week reported more than 900 confirmed cases of the swine flu since the outbreak began in late April, including one death in Chicago.
In Chicago, Kilmer Elementary School and Northside Learning Center both were closed for five school days. Teachers are making up the lost time during the remaining three weeks of school, said district spokeswoman Monique Bond.
Three schools in Oswego were closed when students showed signs of the H1N1 strain.
While district officials extended the school year by three days on account of snow cancellations this winter, they do not plan to do the same for the two days lost because of the swine flu scare, said spokeswoman Kristine Liptrot.
Instead, the district limited out-of-school outings and condensed lesson plans to give students at Fox Chase Elementary and Bednarcik and Thompson Junior Highs the same classroom time as their peers.
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