Eagle Heights Academy takes precaution after diagnosis

West Elementary, closed by a possible staph infection case, was to reopen today.

YOUNGSTOWN — The tentative diagnosis of a case of a staph infection has prompted Eagle Heights Academy to close its doors today.

Superintendent Alex Murphy said test results for the pupil to determine if it is a staph infection should be available today. The child appears to be doing well, he said.

School officials spoke with the child’s parents and the child’s doctor’s office and determined the best thing to do was to handle the situation with caution by shutting the school down and thoroughly cleaning the building so classes can resume Monday.

Eagle Heights, the former South High School on Market Street, has five levels and it will require some time to clean it following Ohio Department of Health guidelines, Murphy said.

Eagle Heights is a charter school serving 874 children in kindergarten through the eighth grade.

The school staff was notified of the situation Thursday afternoon, and pupils were given a letter to take home to their parents, Murphy said.

Meanwhile, the city’s West Elementary School, which was closed Wednesday and Thursday as a result of a possible staph infection suffered by a fourth-grade boy, was to reopen on its regular schedule today after two days of cleaning.

The district was still awaiting test results Thursday to determine if the child had a staph infection or some other ailment.

A pupil in Struthers Elementary School and a Niles McKinley High School football player were recently identified as having the drug-resistant methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.