POLAND – About 80 Poland children stayed home from school Wednesday amid news that Androscoggin County’s first swine flu cases were found at Poland Community School.

“Most people are reacting very calmly,” Principal Ayesha Farag-Davis said.

Wednesday’s sick pool accounted for about one in five of the school’s 430 children. About 20 kids stay home sick on an average day.

“I’m guessing most parents kept their kids home as a precaution,” Farag-Davis said.

Parents were warned Tuesday evening, hours after the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed three cases at the school. An automated phone alert went to every child’s home. Further information was sent home with children on Wednesday.

The three sick children were in the third, fifth and sixth grades, said Dennis Duquette, School Union 29’s superintendent.

None of the children was hospitalized, Farag-Davis said. In fact, one or more could return to school by Friday, the last day of school before the summer break.

“If their symptoms have gone and they’ve waited the right amount of time, they will be welcomed back,” she said.

So far, Maine has been spared the large numbers of flu cases recorded elsewhere. Since April 29, when the state’s first case was reported, 41 more confirmed cases have popped up.

The three Poland cases, and two others, one in York County and the other in Cumberland County, were reported on Tuesday.

None has been life-threatening. The cases have been restricted to people under 64, with the majority – 20 in all – limited to young people between the ages of 5 and 24, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The lack of serious illness may be making people complacent, said Joanne Potvin, director of the Androscoggin County Emergency Management Agency.

With the new cases, she plans to repeat flu-fighting efforts begun in April, particularly encouraging people to stay home if they are sick.

“It’s here,” she said. “Let’s get serious about doing some planning.”

She also worries about medical warnings that the flu could mutate and return in the fall as a tougher bug.

“We have to keep in mind that there are cases out there that haven’t been diagnosed,” she said.

Duquette and Farag-Davis said they worked to carefully follow state and federal recommendations.

If either a student or staff member developed a fever of 100 degrees or more and had a cough or sore throat, the school has been asking them to stay home for seven days after the symptoms come up or until they are well for a full day, whichever is longer.

In some cases, it has ruffled parents and children who wanted to come to school, Farag-Davis said. “They want to be in school for the year-end activities.”