Students back in class at Dearborn Heights Annapolis High School after nearly 200 fell ill last week

Nearly 200 students, several staff members fall ill with suspected norovirus at Dearborn Heights school

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. – Things at Dearborn Heights Annapolis High School were starting to get back to normal on Monday as health officials work to figure out what caused nearly 200 students and more than a dozen staff members to get sick last week.

School officials do not have an attendance count right now, but the numbers are expected to be down. It's just a few days since a mysterious illness forced the school to be closed. Class was back in session on Monday.

Read more: 173 students sickened at Dearborn Heights school

The school was shut down Friday to give cleaning crews time to scour the building which included disinfecting and running air scrubbers to filter the air. The day off also gave the sick students and staff time to get better.

"They put in approximately 200 man hours of cleaning hours alone, and then they came back Saturday," said Jeff Bartold, superintendent of Dearborn Heights District 7.

Attendance on Monday was expected to be light. It's still unclear what is behind the illness which caused flu-like symptoms. Health officials still suspect a norovirus.

"Because of how many kids, and how fast they got sick and the symptoms that they had, right now they think that's what it was," said Bartold.

Stool samples were sent to the state health department and results could come back soon.

"I think we've done everything we possibly can do at this time. Hopefully we got the bug out of there and we can move forward.," the superintendent said.

All schools throughout the district have received a thorough cleaning.

With the Thanksgiving break just around the corner it is expected for things to get back to normal next week. By then, they should know what they were dealing with.