Schools To Share $150,000 (AR)
June 20, 2011
Magazine School District will get $50,000 next school year to pay for a health center, according to the Arkansas Education Department.
A department news release Friday said $150,000 each will go to Magazine Elementary in Logan County, Cross County Elementary and Acorn Elementary in the Ouachita School District.
Magazine District Superintendent Sandra Beck said Friday the money will be used to remodel two classroom spaces at the elementary school for use as examination rooms.
“It’s going to enable our students and staff to have access to medical care of all kinds,” she said. “We’ll have mental health facilities, with medical facilities and partnerships with an eye doctor an d dentist. They’ll be coming to our school on a regular basis.”
Although a part-time school health coordinator now will be employed full-time, no additional employees will be required to staff the clinic.
Work on remodeling the existing space for the clinic, and the facility itself is part of an in-kind match for the grant program, Beck said.
That work should be complete by the fall, and the clinic in full operation no later than the first of 2012.
The news release says the grants will be renewed each year for five years, with the amount reduced each year. The agency said the expectation is that district and community resources will sustain the centers after the five years. According to the release, the money comes from the 2009 tobacco excise tax increase for health programs approved by the Legislature. Nine schools received the grants for the 2010-11 school year.
Jerri Clark of the Education Department said the centers will offer more services than a school nurse and will focus on preventive care, screenings, education outreach and checkups.
It’s the sort of services some Magazine children haven’t been able to get, Beck said.
“Because we are a high-poverty district, there always is need for care,” she said. “With the economy like it is, it hasn’t helped. Things may have gotten a little worse.”