Cloverdale board considers health clinic, emergency training

CLOVERDALE -- After recent nursing cuts were met with concern and controversy from parents and community members, Cloverdale Schools is looking to enter into a partnership with Putnam County Hospital to establish a localized health clinic.

Invited to speak during the Cloverdale School Board’s regular session Monday evening, CEO Dennis Weatherford offered input on how such a clinic would function, as well as how it could meet the needs of students.

Weatherford began that the idea for a school-based clinic goes back to conversations with Superintendent Greg Linton last December. In also discussing the venture with hospital administration, both have focused on grant money which could be obtained to cover the clinic and the technology it would incorporate.

The model would have one registered nurse (RN) employed by Cloverdale Schools be “supplemented” by a certified medical assistant (CMA). The clinic would use a telehealth system, which can remotely connect students with the hospital. Keith Landry’s office would also act as an intermediary to get them advanced care.

“We hope that we can not only provide the baseline, but to exceed it,” Weatherford said. “We’ve looked at other school-based clinics outside of Putnam County, and we can learn about what they lack and what we can do better.”

Emphasizing that the clinic at Cloverdale Schools would be a “pilot” partnership, Weatherford was optimistic that PCH’s board of trustees would support the venture. Weatherford added that the hospital could agree to provide the CMA.

“It is our hope that we would employ the CMA at little to no cost to the school system,” Weatherford said. “I can approach the board further and we can continue to look at other school-based clinics and what they’ve done.”

The clinic would have a two-step process beginning with seeing the RN and CMA at Cloverdale. A telehealth consideration would come next, so that students could get the attention they need without parents having to take off work.

“I want it to be clear that we’re not doing this to get more visits in the hospital,” Weatherford said. “It’s about taking care of students and our community, not about profit.”

In response to a question about insurance, Weatherford provided that it would be billed to those who have it, but that no student would have to be turned away for clinic visits based on ability to pay.

Though Weatherford did not commit to the concept being definitively shaped in the near future, the point was to determine consensus and support from the board. For Linton, the partnership between Cloverdale Schools and Putnam County Hospital would have great potential.

“This has all the earmarks to be a good relationship, and I thank Mr. Weatherford for his input and concern for our community,” Linton said.

“It takes all of us,” Board President Vivian Whitaker added.

Whitaker provided to the Banner Graphic after the meeting that a potential layout would have the RN and a health aide be able to move between Cloverdale Elementary School and Cloverdale High School, and that the CMA would stay at the high school.

Further, the RN and the health aide would be employed by the school corporation, and the CMA would be provided by Putnam County Hospital through the clinic. The board approved a health aide position who would work 29-and-a-half hours.

While no determination can be made as of now, Whitaker and Linton estimated that Cloverdale Schools could save at least $50,000 in its budget, especially if grant money is secured for the telehealth system and the clinic as a whole.

Next, the board heard input from CHS Principal Sonny Stoltz regarding emergency response training through the A.L.I.C.E. (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) program. The impetus of the program would be to implement strategies which teachers can use especially during an active shooter situation.

“School safety is not a stagnant system, because it is always changing,” Stoltz said. “A.L.I.C.E. gives teachers ways to protect the kids and themselves.”

The program is a five-step guide to alert of a danger, secure in place, be able to communicate an intruder’s location and direction, counter an attack by distracting the intruder and then evacuate the school.

Stoltz referenced the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 and the shooter scenario at Noblesville West Middle School in May of last year, saying that such training had become imperative, and has helped, to minimize these threats.

“We need to be better, and we need to give teachers a better arsenal to protect themselves and students,” he said.

“We have to give staff the opportunity to survive and protect themselves,” he added. “We can’t just stop at ‘lockdown.’ We have to move away from ‘lockdown and hunker down.’”

Stoltz provided that the crux of the program would be hands-on, and that officers from the Cloverdale Police Department would handle the training to ensure it is thorough and conducted by those whose staff can trust. Cloverdale’s student resource officer (SRO) would also oversee the training.

Linton said the cost to implement A.L.I.C.E. would be $3,500, and that staff, training 50 individuals at a time, could be going through the program around the time school starts.

After it approved other routine items like donations and requests, the board also approved the following personnel report:

• Resignations: Lacy Chambers, middle school instructional assistant; and Debbie Fidler, high school secretary/treasurer;

• Retirement: Susan (Susi) Jordan, elementary school teacher; and Lisa Baker high school nurse;

• Maternity leave: Jessica Fidler, middle school teacher (Aug. 4 - Oct. 11); and Paige Glassburn, elementary school Pre-K teacher;

• Employment: Kathy Salter, middle school teacher (fill-in for Fidler);

• Coaching resignation: Maria Skiles, seventh-grade volleyball coach;

• Coaching hires: Paige Glassburn, eighth-grade volleyball coach; Katie Mosley, middle school co-ed cross country coach; high school JV volleyball coach; and Charlie Lee, high school JV football coach.

The next meeting of the Cloverdale School Board is scheduled for Monday, July 8 at 7 p.m. in the Arthur L. Johnson Administration Center near Cloverdale High School.