Classes to resume in early January

ALDEN — Alden-Conger School cancelled classes for today and Friday due to an outbreak of illness.

Alden-Conger Superintendent Brian Shanks said about 20 percent — which is about 100 pupils — of the student body was out sick this week.

Eight to 13 staff members were sick as well. These staff included teachers, paraprofessionals, office staff and kitchen staff. Shanks said the district was having issues finding enough substitutes to fill these positions.

Some of the students and staff were out with the flu, Shanks said. And though flu season is the most prevalent in southern Minnesota right now, others were out with strep throat, mononucleosis and pneumonia.

“It’s been going consistent since Monday,” Shanks said, explaining that students and staff had been calling in sick during the beginning of the week, and the numbers accumulated.

Shanks said that in his four years of being superintendent at Alden-Conger School, he’d never seen an outbreak like this that was severe enough to close the school.

Monday is the start of winter break, and classes resume Jan. 5. Shanks hopes that by the time students and teachers come back, everyone will be healthy.

The Minnesota Department of Health has reported the flu is now widespread in Minnesota, a sign this year’s influenza season will be harsher than most.

Shannon Zwanziger, an Owatonna High School senior who died Dec. 9, tested positive for the flu, according to preliminary autopsy results released last week by the Owatonna Police Department.

The Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner’s Office in Rochester performed the autopsy after she died that morning at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where she had been taken after her heart had stopped beating.

Her parents have urged families not be afraid to have their children checked by a medical professional. No medical cost is worth the loss of a child’s life, the father said.