Ohio County BOE Moves To Begin Work On Health Care Clinic at Madison Elementary

WHEELING - Ohio County Schools is one step closer toward having a health care clinic at Madison Elementary School.

Board of education members Tuesday night passed a motion by a vote of 4-1 to bid out work to make the area of the school where the clinic will be handicap-accessible, and to start purchasing needed equipment for the clinic.

The school district is considering a memorandum of understanding with WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital to provide care in the clinic.

The cost to build out a clinic at the school is expected to be $175,000, with Ohio County Schools already having secured $145,000 of the money through grants from the Benedum Foundation and the Sisters of St. Joseph Foundation, said Superintendent Kim Miller.

The school district would make up the remainder of the cost from its general fund, with the cost not to exceed $50,000.

Miller said the school district presently has applied for three additional grants for the project that are outstanding, and if these are approved there likely would be no cost to Ohio County Schools.

Voting in favor of the motion were board president Andy Garber and members Pete Chacalos, Erik Schramm and David Croft. Member Molly Aderholt voted in opposition.

A sticking point with Aderholt and some board members has been whether the parents of students being treated would be notified and have access to their medical records.

She believes they should, but that policy is not the policy of WVU Medicine at its other in-school health clinics.

"For me personally, I would like to see a policy having been agreed to by the board before I would vote to put dollars toward building out something," Aderholt said. "We don't have an agreement on a site. We don't know if we're going to have a deal with providers, or what the care is going to look like.

"If the funding is there with no time restrictions, we should nail those things first."

Croft initially expressed hesitation about voting on the motion, and instead suggested the board wait until board member-elect Bernie Albertini, also administrator at East Ohio Regional Hospital, could join the board and offer his expertise. New members Albertini and Anne Hercules are set to be sworn in to the board at 8 a.m. July 1 at the board office.

Albertini was present in the audience at Monday's meeting. He said after the meeting he would need more background and information regarding the health care clinic before determining how he would vote.

"I think it's important to look at it," Albertini said. "Madison is an underserved area. I don't obviously have the background these guys have in terms of the memorandum of understanding, but I think it's a great idea.

"I would need to see the nuts and bolts of it before I could say yes or no."

Garber said he and communications director Karin Butyn traveled to Hancock County Schools to visit the health care clinic they have established there.

"I was totally impressed with the whole operation and the benefit it gave the school," Garber said. "I heard nothing but positive things. We saw students going in there to get assistance.

"The key to me was that you don't have to use the clinic. If a parent doesn't want their child to use it they don't have to sign permission to use it."

He noted that most people in the room were very lucky as they probably have a family practitioner - but that many families in Ohio County Schools do not.

Garber added it would be beneficial to Madison School, its students, parents and community to have a health care clinic there. He suggested parents might be grateful to not have to take a day off from work to take their sick child to a doctor to be checked, and that a professional would be at the school they trust in to examine them.

"You keep kids in school by keeping them healthy," he continued. "That's important."

Board member Erik Schramm said there are times "we are guilty by all the good we don't do."

He suspects that for as many as 50% of the students, if a school official calls their home and tells their family their child is ill, they still may still never be checked by a doctor.

"Not to be disparaging ... but those are the facts - when you (the school district) have to buy alarm clocks to get kids up for school, and you have to feed them three times a day ...," Schramm said. "We're not talking about a community we were privileged to grow up in. We're talking about children who when the Island flooded didn't have a place to live because they didn't plan, they couldn't or didn't know.

"Seeing a physician doesn't mean their prescriptions are going to get filled, but at least they saw somebody. With all due respect, that population is just a very challenging population."

In other matters, the board unanimously approved motions to instill teacher and wrestling coach Brian Leggett as assistant principal at Wheeling Park High School, and WPHS teacher Nathan Skrzypek as assistant principal at Bridge Street Middle School. Both placements become effective on July 29.

In addition, former Warwood School Principal Joseph Subasic will officially take over as a school psychologist for Ohio County Schools, also on July 29.

The board will next meet at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 10, at the board office, 2203 National Road, Elm Grove.