The Renton School District is preparing for the H1N1 virus, after President Barack Obama’s health task force predicted about 50 percent of Americans could get swing flu this year.

“As a precautionary measure, we’re asking parents to send their kids to school with hand sanitizer with their school supplies,” said district spokesman Randy Matheson.

The virus is commonly spread through hand-to-hand contact, but the district can’t afford to buy and maintain large containers of sanitizer and extra tissues, so the district added them to the supply list.

“We’re going to push really hard that every student wash their hands,” Matheson said.

The district plans on distributing information about the illness to parents in English and Spanish, encouraging them to keep their children home if they’re ill.

“Our concern stems from the information we’re getting from the health department … which is saying that this is going to be a really bad flu season,” Matheson said.

Last May, about 400 Lindbergh High School students, more than a third of the school’s population, stayed home with flu symptoms, causing an H1N1 scare, though most had the mild flu or allergies.

“We’re not looking to close schools. We’re trying to get families to monitor their own children and keep them home when they’re sick,” Matheson said.

The district is working closely with Public Health – Seattle and King County, offering up their school campuses as vaccination locations for the area.

The vaccines aren’t expected to be available until mid to late October.

The district’s major response is improving communications with families and the health department.

To do this it plans to use its new phone system, which allows principals and teachers to send widespread messages.

Nurses also plan to report flu cases to the health department.