Principal Alec Solomon said staff had been hit by winter colds and flus, as well as chest infections.
He explained only senior students were rostered home because they were old enough to be at home alone.
“If we rostered the junior school home, many of our whānau would have to be at home. So we’re trying to minimise the disruption here.”
Solomon called the measure a “last resort”.
“We don’t do it lightly,” he said.
The school was taking things day by day.
Both Year 11s and Year 12s had NCEA assessments to work on, and access to online learning tools such as Google Classroom.
“This is just a hurdle that we will climb together and we will look forward to putting it behind us,” Solomon said.
He believed the issue was compounded by ongoing staffing shortages across the motu (nation) that schools had seen coming for years.
“What happens then is relievers go into long-term relief jobs, and the relief pool right across Northland has never been shallower.
“We’ve got amazing staff desperate to be here, they all do an amazing job, but you can’t control illness.”
Solomon said it was too early to tell whether rostering students home was the new normal. Tikipunga High School, where he was formerly the principal, carried out the same measures last year for the same reasons.
Solomon believed a greater supply of teachers could be part of the solution.
Parent and teacher aide Gina Maddox has two sons at Whangārei Boys’ High School in Year 11 and 9. She understood the decision to roster students home.
“”The Year 11 was fine on his own at home but if we were finding out the night before that Year 9s were rostered off, then I imagine parents would struggle,” she said.
Whangārei GP Dr Geoff Cunningham has observed “a lot” of respiratory illness, including influenza and Covid-19.
“I think we always get busier over winter but I think this winter, just personally, it feels to be slightly busier.”
Cunningham said in the last month, he had experienced a peak in people presenting with such illnesses, including pneumonia. The numbers had not yet eased.
Some patients were off work as they dealt with ongoing symptoms for more than a month, he said.
New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science research shows the number of Healthline calls for influenza-like illness increased in the week ending August 3.
The weekly Healthline call rates for such illnesses for the northern area hit a peak on August 3, higher than at the same time last year.
Cunningham encouraged anyone unwell to stay home to avoid the spread of sickness and seek medical help if they are concerned.
Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.
