School District Approval Letter

Oregon School District
123 East Grove Street, Oregon, WI 53575
608-835-4000
www.oregonsd.org
February 13, 2017
Jonathan Temte, MD, PhD
University of Wisconsin
School of Medicine and Public Health
Department of Family Medicine and community Health
1100 Delaplaine Court
Madison, WI 53715
RE: ORCHARDS-2
Dear Dr. Temte:
I write to extend my enthusiastic and ongoing support, and that of the Oregon School District, for the
Oregon Child Absenteeism due to Respiratory Disease Study (ORCHARDS) and its continuation as
ORCHARDS-2. I see this extended study as a natural expansion of our successful partnership with your
team to evaluate influenza transmission in our community. Respiratory infections have a significant
effect on attendance and academic performance of our students. Better understanding these infections
will benefit our students and their families, our six schools, teachers, student health personnel, and our
administration team, as well as the broader community.
To facilitate recruitment of students from across our district for illness testing, we will continue to allow
an announcement in the registration packet and provide a table at the annual district registration for your
staff to hand out flyers and provide information about the study. In addition, we will work with you and
your staff to send announcements and recruiting information by way of the 3,600 email addresses we
maintain for families with children within our district. We will also continue to post information on our
school district website.
We have been very satisfied with your team’s approach of using our information technology resources,
namely Infinite Campus, and modifying them to seamlessly report absenteeism. We appreciate your
efforts to work with our attendance staff to create a system that fits into their demanding schedule and
does not add work. We also appreciate the weekly feedback letters to our school nurses and your
willingness to teach in our Biotechnology course. We remain supportive of possible implementation of
school-based detection of influenza.

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February 13, 2017

ORCHARDS has supported our efforts to become more aware of community trends in health issues.
Should this project continue to be funded, we would be interested in having you and your staff present
information about influenza vaccination, outbreaks, and other health topics to the staff at all 6 schools.
On a more personal note, I am impressed that the ORCHARDS team includes many parents of students
in our district. This adds credibility and an important community connection that will help to assure
success.

Sincerely Yours,

Brian S. Busler, PhD
Superintendent
Oregon School District