Lindbergh High School’s flu scare is over. Only 83 students and one staff member were absent Wednesday, bringing the Renton school’s population to above normal numbers.

“We’re running even better than normal,” said district spokesperson Randy Matheson. “We made it.”

About 100 students are absent at each of Renton’s high schools each day.

Those numbers started rising a couple weeks ago, and ballooned to nearly 400 students last Tuesday, setting a record number of absences for Renton School District.

Hundreds of students stayed home through last week, many suffering from sniffing and sneezing and other flu-like symptoms.

With daily guidance from Public Health – Seattle and King County and extra help from parents, district officials determined that much of the reported symptoms were simply caused by seasonal allergies, not the flu, and certainly not the swine flu.

A Lindbergh student was diagnosed with swine flu just a few weeks ago, but Matheson says the girl was definitely not the cause of Lindbergh’s sudden rash of illnesses.

Public Health didn’t send medical help to Lindbergh and said the decision to close or leave open Lindbergh was up to the school district. District superintendent Dr. Mary Alice Heuschel decided to keep Lindbergh open, after a letter was sent home to parents and the school was cleaned extra well by three additional custodians.

Now, with the TV cameras and radio microphones gone, Lindbergh is back to school as usual — but with hundreds of students playing catch-up on homework and class assignments before school ends June 22.