Health clinic to stay on campus
NEW ROADS — The Pointe Coupee Parish School Board will permit the Innis Community Health Center to operate another year on the Pointe Coupee Central High School campus.
The unanimous decision came during Thursday night’s board meeting, although some members questioned the arrangement because the campus-based unit also serves the general public.
While the health center serves as the district’s school-based health center, it also has a secondary role as a community-based health center.
Board President Brandon Bergeron and board member Anita LeJeune both raised questions abut the dual arrangement.
Bergeron and LeJeune said they were “uncomfortable” with the clinic’s open-door policy because of its location on the high school’s campus.
The two board members said they were uneasy because outside visitors aren’t required to sign in when they visit the health center as they normally would if they were visiting any other facility on school property.
“My concern is for the safety of our students,” LeJeune said.
“All it takes is one wrong individual to go on campus,” Bergeron said. “Is there any way we can prohibit community residents from using it?”
School Superintendent Linda D’Amico told Bergeron the medical facility cannot turn people away, especially in cases involving medical emergencies.
D’Amico said, however, that she spoke with the facility’s executive director and asked that outside patient services be kept at a minimum.
The health center does not advertise its services to the community and plans to secure a grant that will allow it to relocate into a building off school property, D’Amico said.
According to the agreements approved Thursday, the School Board will provide 50 percent of the funding for the health center’s staff, and the Recovery School District contributes 50 percent of the costs of the health center’s modular building at the high school.
Other issues taken up by the board included:
MAKE-UP DAYS: The School Board decided not to tack on make-up days to the 2012-13 school calender for the four days district schools were closed due to Hurricane Isaac.
D’Amico told the board the state mandates that students receive 360 minutes of instruction daily and the district’s students were already well over that cap despite the missed days.
The superintendent said she also made the recommendation to the board as an incentive to faculty and staff because the district is unable to offer employees supplemental paychecks at the end of the year as do neighboring school districts.