TRAVERSE CITY -- Barbara Hoffman knew she had to change her lesson plans: nearly a third of the desks in her second-grade classroom were empty.
Six of her 20 students were absent from Traverse City's Willow Hill Elementary, so she avoided calling student reading groups with the most members missing.
"Once they left, they were gone for days," said Hoffman. "Most of us tried to go on with what we had prepared."
Flu-related absences shut doors to all Traverse City and Kingsley public schools for a week, giving ill children a chance to get well and sparing teachers from having to deliver lessons to partial classrooms.
The number of local closures -- suspected to be caused by the H1N1 influenza strain known as swine flu -- continues to grow: Traverse City College Preparatory Academy and Grand Traverse Academy will be empty until Nov. 2.
Betsie Valley Elementary in Benzie County will be closed for a second day today. Both Traverse City's and Kingsley's districts will reopen Nov. 3.
Local health professionals said a shortage of vaccine prompted them to cancel immunization clinics for private and charter schools this week, to be rescheduled when more doses arrive.
Symptoms thus far have been no more serious than the seasonal flu. A Munson Medical Center spokesman said a few people have been hospitalized, and health professionals said no one has died.
Virus spread rapidly
On the surface, widespread school closures -- weeklong shutdowns in Grand Traverse County and a few days at a time elsewhere in northern Michigan -- serve as a vivid illustration of how rapidly the virus washed across the region.
Traverse City Prep, a charter high school in East Bay Township, dismissed early Tuesday after fewer than half its 72 students were in class. The 38 absences were a sharp increase from Monday, when 13 students were gone, school leader Marguerite Forrest said.
The school first closed Thursday and Friday last week to combat illness.
Grand Traverse Academy closed beginning today as a "precautionary" measure, Superintendent Kaye Mentley said.
Three of 120 staff members and 61 of 1,100 students -- about 6 percent -- were ill Tuesday, she said. Thirty-one students were absent Monday.
"I would hope it doesn't contribute to concerns," Mentley said of the closure. "We certainly don't want anyone to panic. On the other hand, this is an illness that we aren't familiar with."
More than 10,000 local children are out of classrooms this week.
Some recuperated, or tried to do so. Others enjoyed an unexpected vacation.
Chuckie Pittenger slept in until 11 a.m. Tuesday and spent the rest of the day biking through downtown Traverse City.
"It feels like a Saturday," said Chuckie, 14, who attends Central High School.
He and his friends avoided the flu bug, so instead of resting at home, they spent their free day at the Traverse City Skatepark and the Clinch Park Zoo.
"It's a lot better than being in class," said Malachi Smith, 12, who attends East Middle School.
But not everyone was excited to have the rest of the week off.
Maci Wilcox, 4, was excited to show off her Halloween costume this week at Cherry Knoll Elementary School. That's off, but she still plans to dress up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz for Saturday trick-or-treating, while her sister, Marlo, 7, is going as a pirate.
The two sisters spent Tuesday running errands with their parents, Bob and Stacy Wilcox of Traverse City, who are taking precautions to shield the girls from the flu bug.
"We've got our bottle of hand sanitizer with us today," Stacy Wilcox said.
Statewide trend
Sweeping illness from flu is a trend that's mirrored statewide, as schools from Houghton County in the Upper Peninsula to Berrien County on the Indiana border closed because of illness.
As of noon Tuesday, 117 schools were closed across the state, down from more than 240 last week, but up from 53 on Monday, said James McCurtis, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Community Health.
Grand Traverse County had 23 schools closed Tuesday, the most of any county in the state, according to department data. Calhoun County, west of Jackson, was second with 17.
"It can be a sign of a roller coaster ride," McCurtis said. "Next week could be another peak."
More influenza-related illnesses are present in Michigan this October than a year ago, he said. More than 47,500 cases of flu-like symptoms were reported across the state from Oct. 18-24.
"This is the first time we've had a full flu season with H1N1, so a lot of things that we are going to be seeing, we can't predict it right now," he said. "We'll have something to gauge next year if we're still battling this virus."
The lack of a reference point also proves a hurdle for school administrators, who are monitoring attendance rates with careful eyes to avoid a shutdown.
Several, like Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools, are providing status updates for the following day only because the situation is so volatile. The system is open today, but busing won't be offered.
Suttons Bay Public Schools had 108 students absent on Monday. The number was down to 93 Tuesday afternoon, Superintendent Mike Murray said.
In all, they represent about 10 percent of the district's enrollment.
"I can't see closing a school for a case like that," he said. "We keep stressing that students who are ill should not be sent to school, because we're going to have to turn around and send them back home."
The Traverse Bay Area Career Tech-Center took a roughly 40 percent hit in attendance when Traverse City and Kingsley closed, since technical education students don't attend the center when their home schools are closed, Principal Jason Jeffrey said.
That said, enough students were in classes Tuesday to stay open today, Jeffrey said.
Sixteen of 207 students were absent Tuesday from Woodland School, a K-8 charter school in Grand Traverse County's Whitewater Township, Director Nathan Tarsa said.
Five are believed to have the flu, six have mild symptoms and five stayed home "to play it safe," Tarsa said, adding that canceling classes is "not at all" in the works.
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- Swine Flu: What kids should know (PDF)
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