As school season kicks off, so also comes health risks.

And, the Pike County Board of Education is not taking any chances when it comes to flu season.

One of the primary topics of discussion in the system board meeting Monday was the system’s preparedness for a potential flu outbreak.

“We are certainly monitoring the flu cases we have seen and taking all the precaution we possibly can,” said Superintendent Mark Bazzell. “We certainly anticipate more flu cases as the fall continues.”

Bazzell said one of the keys to preventing a widespread flu problem in schools was to being able to keep flu-ridden students out of classrooms.

“The key is identifying any potential flu cases we may have,” Bazzell said. “The key indicator is temperature. If a student or faculty member’s temperature is over 100 degrees, we send them home. The advice we have been given is not to allow children to return to school until they have been temperature-free and medicine-free for 24 hours.”

While a potential flu outbreak may be a negative topic, the board also discussed a point of pride.

In the recent accountability studies, the results showed that all five Pike County schools met the adequate yearly progress (AYP) standards.

It marks the second consecutive year that all PCS schools have met AYP.

It is also the fourth consecutive year that all four schools met their academic proficiency goals.

“This is thanks to a combination of some programmatic things we’re doing and some research things we’re doing,” Bazzell said. “Also, a fundamental change we’ve made is improving the attitude regarding what we can do as a school system. We’ve strengthened our faculties every year. This just has to happen one student at a time with everybody heading in the right direction.”

Despite the positive results, Bazzell said the system couldn’t be complacent from here on out.

“We absolutely cannot be satisfied with this,’ Bazzell said. “We have to continue to move forward.”