MONTEREY — Both Monterey High School and Adams County Christian School are closed Friday due to health concerns, school officials said.

After some 120 students were absent and reporting flu-like symptoms, Whest Shirley, superintendent of Concordia Parish School District, said Monterey High School sent notes home Wednesday and called parents to inform them that the school would be closed Thursday and Friday this week.

Shirley said 23 students checked out of school Wednesday while approximately 100 more students had been absent during the week.

“We’ve been monitoring these absences all week,” Shirley said. “Monterey has about 440 students in kindergarten through 12th-grade, and with 120 absent that is around 26% of the school. I would say 99% of them were fever and flu-like symptoms. None of them were on vacation or anything like that.”

Shirley said the school office would remain open Friday and teachers were instructed to disinfect their classrooms.

Shirley said other schools in the district did not have any irregular absences and would stay open through Friday. All of Concordia Parish schools would be closed Monday through Friday next week for the Thanksgiving break, Shirley said.

“There may have been about 20 or 30 students absent here and there, but none to the extent that Monterey had,” Shirley said.

Adams County Christian School headmaster David King sent out a letter announcing the school would close Friday and start the Thanksgiving holiday early due to similar health concerns.

“I have thought long and hard about this and truly believe it is in the best interest of our students and staff to cancel school (Friday),” King said. “With the number of students who have had to check out early as well as those who were absent, I believe that it would be better to be safe than sorry with regard to exposing even one child to something that would disrupt your family’s holiday next week.”

King said the extra day off would allow the school’s maintenance staff time to “thoroughly disinfect all common areas of the school.”

The school’s daycare facilities would also be closed for the same reason and would reopen Monday, King said.

Zandra McDonald, Natchez Adams School District deputy superintendent said student absences have increased slightly in Natchez as well but are not isolated to any specific school, she said.

“We have seen a small increase in the number of absences. The district is working to be certain that we have disinfected our classrooms to keep the episodes of flu as low as we possibly can,” McDonald said. “We have had a number of students who have been diagnosed with the flu over the last month.”

Suzanne Stead, RN, director of Infection Prevention at Merit Health Natchez, said hospital visits from patients with flu-like symptoms have increased. Stead said early vaccination is the key to preventing further influenza outbreaks.

“We are experiencing an increase in emergency room visits among people with flu-like symptoms,” Stead said. “Influenza can be severe and annual vaccination is the best tool for flu prevention. It is not too late to get a flu shot. Anyone who has not yet been vaccinated this season is encouraged to get an influenza vaccine now.”