With community members living in close proximity to each other boarding schools present an environment in which flu and other bugs can spread quickly and easily.

However with some planning and use of flexible scheduling Chatham Hall and Hargrave Military Academy were recently subjects of a local news story (Boarding Schools Face Tough Flue Challenges) highlighting their planning and success in blunting flu transmission.

“…Still, the headmaster decided canceling games would give students a chance to rest and recover. William Wiebking at Hargrave Academy said, ‘Last week we cancelled all of our sports due to flu. We had just the common flu kind of sweep through the school…’

…Both schools say, they can use a boarding school schedule, to their advantage though…

..It’s not a big deal for a boarding school like Hargrave to change the schedule, shut things down for a little while and let the boys recover and have a little bit more time to sleep in the morning,” Wiebking said.

It’s a play this school says, paid off.

‘We’re pretty much back to our normal routine. We do have a couple of kids left who are still sick, but we’re on the downside of the bubble now and we’re moving forward,’ Wiebking said.”