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Steamboat Springs — Steamboat Springs Middle School Principal Tim Bishop thought his school had dodged a bullet.

Then Monday happened.

District officials said 133 students, or 26 percent of the student body, were home sick. That included 110 students whose parents called them in sick and 23 who were sent home from school. The school remained open, and officials have no plans to cancel classes.

"We're not really going to overreact or act on this until we get some more numbers this week," Superintendent Shalee Cunningham said.

Cunningham said Soda Creek and Strawberry Park elementary schools and Steamboat Springs High School did not have students absent at the same rate as the middle school. Schools in Hayden and South Routt also weren't hit with unusually high absence rates Monday. Hayden Superintendent Greg Rockhold said 24 of the district's about 450 students were home sick. South Routt Superintendent Scott Mader said absences didn't exceed 5 percent district-wide.

That wasn't the case at the middle school's Strawberry Park campus, where Bishop said about a dozen students were in the nurse's office before 9 a.m. Monday.

The school day starts at 8:20 a.m.

He said the school had normal absence rates last week with between 20 and 30 students home sick each day, which is typical this time of year.

On Friday, he said there was a spike, with more than 50 students out.

Bishop said he suspected that the high absence rate could have been a result of sixth-graders spending three days overnight together as part of Yampa Valley Science School at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp. But more of the absent students were seventh- and eighth-graders, he said.

"I don't have (a theory) why we're hit more than any other school right now," Bishop said. "From what I'm hearing from our nurses, it's not the same thing for all kids. I think it's several different illnesses traveling around. It's not identical symptoms and recovery times."

Northwest Colorado Visiting Nurse Association nurse Dot Haberlan, who oversees health services for Routt County's public schools, said students were out for a variety of reasons, including flu, strep throat, sinus infections, and head and chest colds.

Bishop said students who had spent time home sick had relapsed and were again absent. He asked that all parents keep their children home for at least 24 hours after their fevers subside.

The school was fortunate to have only one teacher absent Monday, Bishop said. Cunningham said a discussion about closing schools wouldn't occur until at least 30 percent of students are absent.