PONDER -- Ponder Superintendent Bruce Yeager announced Friday afternoon that he has made the decision to close down all district campuses until May 11 after it was determined that three elementary students tested positive for Type A influenza.

Yeager said while the condition of the three students has not been confirmed as the H1N1 virus which is also known as “swine flu” he thought it was in the best interest to close all district campuses.

It was known Thursday, Yeager said, that one student had been diagnosed with Type A influenza but schools were closed after a mother brought a doctor’s note Friday indicating that two of her children had also tested positive. He said “further testing is underway and confirmation will be available in seven to ten days.”

“We immediately sprung into action,” he said. “We are going to shut down the whole district because of the proximity of campuses.”

Because all the district campuses lie adjacent to one another on a stretch of land off West Bailey Street in Ponder there’s a lot of “cross over between campuses,” Yeager said. There is a lot of interaction of students between campuses and in some cases, they all share transportation, staff and faculty and maintenance staff, he said.

“We feel if we’re going to shut down one, we’re going to shut them all,” Yeager said.

 In a statement posted on the district Web site about 3 p.m. Yeager said under the recommendation of state and county health officials, “the most appropriate course of action is to close schools that ‘break the threshold’ of having three to six cases of Type A Influenza on one campus.” 

He said cleaning crews have since earlier this week has increased their disinfecting of the schools. He said they will use a chlorine bleach solution and “hospital-grade disinfectant” to clean all campus facilities and vehicles.

BRITNEY TABOR can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is btabor@dentonrc.com