MARIETTA - The question of how to deliver the coming swine flu vaccine to Cobb School District students was raised during Wednesday's board meeting.

Since April, the virus has caused five deaths and 192 hospitalizations in Georgia, including two deaths and at least four hospitalizations in Cobb County as of Sept. 2, said Jennifer Munoz, an epidemiologist with Cobb & Douglas Public Health.

Influenza, including H1N1 swine flu, is a respiratory disease that spreads from person to person. The main symptoms are fever, cough and sore throat - typical flu-like symptoms - although some have reported vomiting and diarrhea as well.

Members of the Cobb and Douglas Public Health told school board members Wednesday that the new vaccine should be available by mid to late October.

Board attorney Glenn Brock advised the school board to make the district's facilities available for health department staff to administer the vaccine, since from a liability standpoint, the odds of vaccinating 75,000 children are bound to generate some reactions.

Trouble is, there are not enough health department nurses to administer the voluntary vaccine to all Cobb's students, said Pam Blackwell, director of the health department's center for emergency preparedness and response.

Brock said he, along with Superintendent Fred Sanderson and Blackwell, would continue to discuss a feasible plan before the vaccine becomes available.

"We recognize the need for our nurses to be involved," Sanderson said.

The recommendations for who should receive the vaccine are numerous. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said priority should be given to people ages six months to 24; pregnant women; caregivers of children under six months of age; health care professionals; and people ages 25 to 64 who are subject to higher medical complications. The above list includes about 159 million Americans, Blackwell said.

Citizens also need to obtain the seasonal flu vaccine as well.

Blackwell said it's important that if you're sick, stay home. Those with flu-like symptoms should stay home for at least 24 hours after they no longer have a fever, without the use of fever reducing medicines.

Other helpful tips include:

* Washing your hands with soap and water or using hand sanitizers often.

* Covering your mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing.

* And avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth.

In other business Wednesday, the board directed Sanderson to bring at least three calendar options for the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school years to its regular meeting on October 14.

Board Chairman Dr. John Abraham asked Sanderson to poll teachers to learn what they believe the best calendar would be, although he wasn't specific about how that poll should be conducted.

"Let the emails begin," Abraham said.

Board Vice Chairwoman Lynnda Crowder-Eagle suggested that teachers should simply tell their principals what they want, so that the principals could pass it up the line.

One of the calendar options board member Holli Cash of Smyrna asked Sanderson to bring back was that of a "balanced" calendar, which is a calendar that starts earlier in the school year and allows for breaks during the school year.

"We'll bring back a couple options similar to what our current calendar is and they asked for a balanced calendar, which is more breaks during the course of the year," Sanderson said after the meeting.

"We'll try to bring a draft to the work session, and the direction I heard is send it out to the schools, let the teachers look at it, let the community look at it at that time," Sanderson said.

Abraham wants teachers to speak with candor about what they'd like to see in a calendar.

"I think we've made it very clear that I want bottom up leadership as much as top down," Abraham said.

The board also accepted the resignation of former Campbell High School principal Kehl Arnson. The board demoted Arnson in July to the rank of assistant principal just weeks after he was assigned at the recommendation of Sanderson to head McEachern High.

Sanderson has said Arnson was under investigation for "irregularities" in staff evaluations, although no reason for his resignation was offered at the board meeting.