WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. -- The Columbia County Department of Health & Human Services has closed the Wisconsin Dells School District after hundreds of students missed school with influenza-like illness.

District administrator Chuck Whitsell said the district was closed Tuesday afternoon and will reopen Monday.

He said district officials conferred with state and county health officials before deciding to close.

"We had a high rate of absenteeism at the high school -- about 31 percent (Monday)," Whitsell said.

Whitsell said about one-third of the 580 high-school students were absent Monday or Tuesday with flu-like symptoms. He said there are 1,120 middle-school and elementary-school students, and about 10 percent were also out. Whitsell said those students mingle with the high school students on school buses.

"Kids have to be healthy for effective education to take place in schools and we reached that threshold where I think the collective wisdom of the county health department, the state health department and our school administrators really felt that that was not occurring," Whitsell said.

State health officials instructed the district that people showing flu-like symptoms should be sent home. So, in addition to the roughly 180 absent high-school students, school officials sent an extra 100 students home, Whitsell said.

"The high school principal told me about a female student who was there yesterday, he said she looked like death warmed over -- she was so sick and obviously uncomfortable to be there," Whitsell said.

Whitsell said that all school athletic events, extra curricular activities and public gatherings at schools have also been canceled until further notice.

Some events can be rescheduled, but one can not. A star girl's doubles tennis team will miss the chance to play in Wednesday's sectional final, which means they lose the chance at playing in the state tournament.

"There are two young ladies who play doubles tennis and this is a one shot deal, and I feel badly that we're in this situation, but they're not going to be able to play in the sectional tournament (Wednesday)," Whitsell said.

Parent-teacher conferences that were scheduled for the remaining days of this week will be rescheduled. The district said school offices will remain open, if there are sufficient healthy personnel to keep them open and healthy teachers may work in their classrooms during the closure.

Custodians will be working to sanitize all five schools.

"(They'll) wash table tops and door handles and door knobs, that sort of thing," Whitsell said.

Last week was homecoming, and Whitsell said that might have contributed to the situation, because students were coming to school sick because they didn't want to miss events.

The school district said it anticipates reopening all schools on Monday, Oct. 12.

State health officials have tried to avoid school closures due to flu outbreaks by taking basic precautions of disinfecting surfaces and educating schools.

"Generally we try to use school closures as a last result, and I should say this is a local health decision. But when you have that high of a percentage of the student body out sick, the safest course of action is to close schools," said Seth Bofelli, of the state Department of Health & Family Services.

Bofelli said this is a key reminder to parents to keep their children home from school if they are sick.

Any further updates will be posted to the Wisconsin Dells School District's Web site.