LLOYD, Ky. — Flu-like symptoms affecting students and staff moved officials in the Greenup County School District to close schools at the end of the school day Wednesday.

Daily attendance had dropped to 85 percent in the rural seven-school district, which has about 3,060 students in grades kindergarten through 12th grades, said Scarlet Shoemaker, who handles public relations for the district.

“We had some students, staff and bus drivers who were hit with not just flu-like symptoms but also upper respiratory and strep throat illnesses. Everything just hit at once,” said Shoemaker.

Schools remained closed Thursday and Friday but were scheduled to reopen Monday, she said.

“Everybody is going to be healthy by then,” she added, indicating that she was keeping her fingers crossed on that one.

She said those people sick with flu-like conditions were diagnosed as having the regular seasonal flu, not the H1N1 virus, referred to as swine flu.

“In order to determine that it is swine flu and not seasonal flu requires a different test, and we are not doing that at this point,” Shoemaker said.

Kentucky schools are funded by a formula based on the previous year’s average daily attendance, and generally when the attendance drops considerably for one reason or the other it becomes a financial burden.

It’s not just the funding school officials are concerned about, Shoemaker said.

“It’s difficult to teach a class and have continuity with so many students absent,” she said.

Flu-related absences are beginning to hit hard in some northeastern Kentucky school districts. The Russell Independent School District, also in Greenup County, closed on Wednesday for the remainder of the week after its average daily attendance dropped to 82 percent.

The third school district in the county, Raceland-Worthington, had so far escaped widespread illness.

To the south, Elliott County Schools were closed Tuesday for the remainder of the week when attendance dipped to 74 percent.

Kentucky Education Department Commissioner Terry Holliday said earlier this week that he has contacted leaders in the state House and Senate about drafting legislation that would give some slack to school districts that lose considerable days because of the flu.

The legislature approved a similar measure in its last session after the ice storms that struck most of the state closed a number of school districts. Provisions of the bill allowed districts to excuse those days missed because of the storm.

G. SAM PIATT can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 236.