Student safety & wellness
The safety and wellbeing of students is the very first priority of Eudora Schools. Without a safe, secure, healthy, and nurturing environment, it is impossible for effective learning to take place. Here are a few of the programs and policies in place to help create that environment:
Staph infection / MRSA information
Emergency phone broadcast (SchoolReach)
Mental health crisis response team
In an educational environment, it is important that parents and schools team together to ensure the physical health of all students. Two school nurses serve the students of the district.
It is recommended that children who are sent home or kept home from school with a fever remain at home for 24 hours after their temperature as returned to normal. Any time a child displays signs and/or symptoms of a contagious illness or disease, a physician must provide identification and diagnosis before the child will be allowed to return to school.
As media reports increase about swine flu cases in Kansas and around the world, the team at Eudora Schools is committed to partnering with parents and area agencies to keep our students and staff healthy.
Click here to download a fact sheet about swine flu from the Lawrence Douglas County Health Department.
The symptoms of swine flu in people are similar to the symptoms of regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Vomiting or diarrhea has been experienced in some of the cases. If you have these symptoms, contact your doctor.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), hand washing continues to be the number one method of prevention of any disease or illness, including swine flu. Additionally, the CDC recommends that people try to stay in good general health, get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage stress, drink plenty of fluids and eat nutritious food.
You can help avoid the swine flu illness by observing the following guidelines from the CDC:
- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
- Try to avoid close contact with people who are sick.
- If you get sick with influenza, stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.
Furthermore, experts agree that there is no risk of swine flu associated with eating pork or pork products.
Any time you have questions about your child's health, you are urged to contact your doctor or your child's school nurse. Details about swine flu are available from the following local, state and federal resources:
- www.swinefluks.org
- www.cdc.gov/swineflu
- www.ldchealth.org/
- KDHE swine flu information line: 1-877-427-7317 (toll free)
- E-mail inquiries: swinefluinfo@kdheks.gov
Staph infection / MRSA information
Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a bacteria that is commonly found on the skin and in the nose of 20-30 percent of healthy individuals. This bacteria often causes skin infections; it also can cause other, more serious infections, such as pneumonia or bloodstream infections.
MRSA (sometimes verbally referred to as “mersa”) is a strain of the common bacteria, S. aureus, that is resistant to methicillin, an antibiotic in the same class as penicillin. The letters stand for Methicillin-Resistent Staphylococcus aureus.A skin infection with MRSA can begin as a reddened area on the skin, or resemble a pimple that can develop into a skin abscess or boil causing fever, pus, swelling or pain.
There are no current clusters or outbreaks in Eudora Schools, nor is there a record of any past clusters or outbreaks in our district. Working closely with the Douglas County Health Department, the district also has a maintenance program in place to ensure all necessary cleaning is done to provide a safe and supportive learning environment.
- Health department experts agree that schools do not need to be closed for special cleaning: there is not much opportunity for transmission in the general school population.
- Right
now, our district is doing the following:
- Information about Staph/MRSA prevention provided to parents and students on our Web site.
- Principals and EMS and EHS athletic directors provided Staph/MRSA facts and steps to prevent outbreaks
- Schools are cleaned regularly with a broad-spectrum micro-organism-killing solution. - Officials from Eudora Schools work routinely with the Douglas County Health Department to monitor illnesses to look for trends and determine when specific local responses to significant increases in illness are required.
What
can I do to help prevent an infection?
Parents, students and district employees can help by
encouraging and practicing proper hygiene, especially:
- Washing hands and body thoroughly and regularly with soap and water.
- Keeping clothes clean.
- Washing cuts and scrapes and keep them covered with bandages.
For more information about staph infections or MRSA, you are encouraged to contact your family’s physician or the Douglas County Health Department.
Mental and emotional wellness is a critical part of overall health. Along with the excitement and success that students will experience during their school years, most also will experience varying degrees of stress, anxiety, discouragement, or even depression. The Eudora Schools staff is committed to addressing the needs of students to ensure mental or emotional health.
Emergency phone broadcast (SchoolReach)
Parents and guardians of Eudora Schools students receive immediate broadcasts of urgent information on the phone thanks to a partnership with SchoolReach, a service that allows a recorded message to be delivered to as many as thousands of phones in the community very quickly. The system enables district and school personnel to simultaneously notify all households and parents by phone within minutes of an emergency or unplanned event that might cause early dismissal, school cancellation or late start. Messages are in the voice of a principal or someone else from the district and include all pertinent information about the emergency.
Parents need not register for the service; home or primary numbers collected on enrollment forms will be used. To indicate additional numbers, such as a cell phone or work number, contact your child's school office. Personal information and contact numbers are strictly secure and confidential, and families will not receive any non-school messages as a result of this service.
For more information about how SchoolReach will be used by the district, and to learn more about how to get the most out of it at home, review the information sheet. In case of "snow day" closings in the evening or early morning, calling times will be limited to those outlined in this procedure.
Every effort is made to provide safety during arrival and departure from the schools. In addition to transporting rural students to and from school, a bus shuttle is available before and after school to take students between the schools and designated drop-off points in the community. Copies of the shuttle schedule and request transportation form are available on the Parent Tools section of this site. If you have concerns about how construction might affect your child's bus or shuttle, please contact the district's transportation department at 542-4900.
We are very proud of the Eudora Schools transportation safety record, which is a direct result of conscientious service by our transportation staff. The consideration and cooperation of parents can help the children understand that riding a school bus is a privilege, and rules of conduct are necessary for their safety and the safety of others on the bus.
For safety reasons in the busy traffic areas near the new school, students at Eudora Elementary School are not permitted to ride their bikes to school for the 2009-2010 school year.
Good nutrition during the school years is vitally important for helping students grow strong, succeed in school, and establish healthy habits for a lifetime. The meals we serve are nutritionally evaluated by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans criteria. We monitor nutrients, fats, fiber, and calories in the meals we offer to students. Eudora School District has also established a school wellness policy that encourages parents, teachers, and food services to provide healthful foods and beverages, opportunities for physical activity, and wellness education throughout the school day.
Breakfast meal includes choice of an entree, juice, and milk. Lunch meal includes an entree, vegetables, fruits, and milk. We offer homemade rolls and other baked products several times a week, and these are included in lunch.
Mental health crisis response team
The Eudora Schools mental health crisis team is available to assist in helping students and staff deal with crisis situations. Any event that threatens a feeling of safety and security shall be considered a crisis. There are unlimited possibilities for crisis situations that could affect the district. These may include suicide, death, trauma, natural disaster, and acts of violence, among many others. The team's role is to help students and staff cope with feelings of grief and stress, as well as to help transition the school community back into its normal routine.
Included on this crisis team are the school counselors, school psychologist, and school social worker. These people have been trained in crisis management. In addition, the Eudora district has access to the regional crisis intervention team, coordinated through the Greenbush educational cooperative.
Goals of the mental health crisis response team are to:
- Provide an organized, systematic, and flexible response to the emotional needs created in crisis situations.
- Provide immediate emotional support for school staff, students, and administration as they work through a crisis situation.
- Help anticipate the emotional and mental health needs of individuals and groups affected by a crisis situation.
- Aid in transitioning the school community back to its daily routine.
- Identify those individuals who might need follow-up support. Provide referrals to outside services.
- Be proactive in the education of the school and district communities in crisis prevention and the ongoing process of creating safe learning environments.
During the storm season, parents and guardians of current Eudora Schools students will be contacted with the emergency phone broadcast service, SchoolReach, with announcements regarding buses and school closings.
Anyone may access information about school closings on the district Web site homepage, as well as on the local and area television and radio stations. Those enrolled in the news listserv will receive an e-mail alert as soon as the decision is made. To sign up for the news listserv, enter your preferred e-mail address in the box on the front page of the Web site, and follow the instructions to complete your registration.
Decisions to call off school due to bad weather or to dismiss during the day because of bad weather will be made by the superintendent of schools. Every effort will be made to notify parents in advance when this situation occurs.
In the event of severe weather requiring a “take cover” situation, students will be housed in what is considered the safest part of the school building. Parents are strongly urged to wait until after the severe weather threat has passed before attempting to pick up children from school. Tornado drills will be held three times during the year in preparation of an actual emergency. Maps of tornado drill routes are posted in all rooms.
Fire drills are conducted several times during the year. When a fire siren is sounded, students will follow teachers and staff members from their rooms in a rapid, orderly fashion. The intended routes to be taken are posted in each room.
