PARKERSBURG - Tyler County Schools was back in session Thursday after a five-day break to help students and staff recover from the flu.

Officials with the school system and the Wetzel-Tyler Health Department announced Nov. 6 they would close schools on Nov. 9-10 to give students and staff a chance to recover from an outbreak of influenza-like illness. Schools already were scheduled to be closed Nov. 11 for Veterans Day.

"They are back in session," said Dorothy Lockett, assistant administrator for the Wetzel-Tyler Health Department, "and their attendance is much better than it was last week."

For example, Lockett said Arthur I. Boreman Elementary School saw about 37 percent of its student body absent at the end of last week. Thursday only 23 percent of students were absent.

Tyler County Consolidated Middle School saw a similar percentage of sick and absent students last week, but Thursday saw those numbers drop to about 14 percent.

The schools also saw a rebound in staff attendance, up from 11 teachers out on Friday to only two teachers out Thursday, Lockett said.

"I think it was a good call" to close schools, Lockett said. "It definitely helped."

Wood County Schools, which last month was hit hard by the flu bug, also has seen its numbers steadily return to normal levels, said spokeswoman Sue Woodward.

On Thursday Wood County Schools had about 963 out of 13,000 K-12 students absent, or just over 7 percent. The number was down slightly from 992 students absent on Tuesday.

By contrast, Woodward said, about 2,416 students were absent Oct. 23, or about 19 percent of the district's K-12 population, during the height of the H1N1 outbreak.

"You can watch it daily improve through October and into November," she said.

During normal high-illness seasons, the absence rate typically jumps to 7-8 percent, Woodward said, and "on most normal school days, you would expect to have 95-96 percent of students at school."

Lockett also said the Wetzel-Tyler Health Department has begun receiving enough doses of the H1N1 vaccine to begin vaccinations in Tyler County Schools. Lockett said officials will offer the vaccines at Boreman and the consolidated schools complex Monday, and school officials planned to contact parents about the vaccinations today and over the weekend.