A school district near Boise closed this week as illnesses surged. What good will it do?
The Emmett School District canceled classes to deep clean all of its buildings, citing low attendance linked to the spread of various illnesses in the community. The district cited norovirus, COVID-19, influenza, RSV and pertussis, also known as whooping cough.
“We hope this additional cleaning and an extended weekend will help students and staff recover and reduce further spread of illness,” the school district said on its Facebook page.
Here are answers to three key questions about the spread of illness and disease in Emmett and other Southwest Idaho schools:
1. What will deep cleaning accomplish?
The closures took effect Thursday. The Emmett district did not immediately respond Friday to a phone call and email asking about the deep cleaning.
Most of the illnesses cited in Wednesday’s Facebook post, including COVID-19, pertussis, influenza and RSV, are respiratory illnesses, and scientists have increasingly said that there is little to no evidence that such illnesses can spread via contaminated surfaces, according to reporting from The New York Times. Instead, health officials have emphasized improving ventilation and filtration of indoor air.
But norovirus, sometimes called the winter vomiting disease, is highly transmissible and spreads primarily by touching contaminated surfaces or through direct contact with an infected person, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
Dr. David Pate, the former CEO of St. Luke’s Health System, said deep cleaning the school district’s classrooms should help curb the spread of norovirus, and having some additional time apart for students and staff should further limit the spread of that disease and the respiratory illnesses.
He said children typically get over norovirus in a couple of days.
“Just getting the kids away from each other can certainly bring those levels down,” Pate told the Idaho Statesman by phone on Friday. “It will temporarily break those chains of transmission.”
2. Are students getting sick in other school districts?
Emmett is about 30 miles north of Boise in neighboring Gem County. The notice from the Emmett district said other schools in the region served by Southwest District Health have seen high rates of those illnesses, too. It also said the latest hospital data shows a spike in strep throat cases in children.
Tracey Garner, supervisor of health services at the West Ada School District, which serves Meridian, Eagle, Star, Garden City and parts of Boise and Kuna, said Idaho’s largest school district also saw a jump in pertussis cases in December. After winter break, those cases began to flatten out, she said Friday by phone. She said attendance levels are now fairly normal.
The Boise School District late last year warned parents and staff of a “widespread” pertussis outbreak in the community and across Idaho.
The board of the health district, which encompasses the Gem, Canyon, Adams, Owyhee, Payette and Washington counties, voted in October to no longer offer the COVID-19 vaccine to residents who want to pay for it. Dr. Christine Hahn, an epidemiologist at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, told the Idaho Statesman in December that the state’s vaccination rates are not where they should be.
Idaho has the lowest immunization rates for children in the U.S., according to the CDC. In the 2022-23 school year, the state’s vaccination rate for pertussis was the worst in the nation at 81%, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.
3. What’s next?
The Emmett district moved to a four-day week last year, so schools were already scheduled to be closed Friday. The district plans to open back up on Monday.
The notice said scheduled athletic events at the high school will continue as planned.
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