Laurel school board discusses outside agency to provide school nurses

The Laurel County School meeting room had several nurses present for Monday night’s school board meeting, as one of the topics discussed involved an outside agency supplying nurses throughout the school district.

Superintendent Denise Griebel told board members that the issue was simply a discussion and that no action would be taken. However, the discussion involved a changing of the guard, so to speak, in that the school district has had at least two offers from companies wishing to supply nurses for the county schools.

Griebel said the district currently has 18 nurses who are stationed at each school. She said the Laurel school district was fortunate because funding was available to provide a nurse at every school — something that many other school districts could not offer.

“I want to clarify that we have not solicited for services but we have been approached by an outside agency that wants to provide services for the next school year,” Griebel told board members.

That organization has submitted a contract for those services, and Griebel added that another outside agency had contacted them with a desire to provide nursing services for the school district.

“And there’s been an inquiry by a third agency but at this point, an inquiry is all we have,” she continued.

Griebel said the administrators often listened to “sales pitches” and often received samples and wanted to make sure their programs were top notch. The proposals of outside agencies to provide nursing services was something Griebel said she felt she needed to address to board members. She emphasized that no change was required and that board members could make that decision.

Board member Brice Hicks asked the deadline, which is April 15. Ed Jones asked whether the other organization could submit costs, adding that the current service is reaching “over six figures” each year.

“Is this going to save us $600,00 to $800,000 a year?” he asked.

Jones said he had been told that one agency was willing to defer all co-pays with School Board Attorney Conrad Cessna stating that the contract had not specified that.

The future of the existing nurses was a concern for board members, who asked if those nurses would have first chance with an organization proposing to supply the service. Krahenbuhl asked about the retirement program, with Griebel stating that if another agency supplied the nursing services, the nurses would not be the school district’s employees — therefore would not qualify for state retirement. She did say that she would discuss that option with the agencies expressing interest in supplying the services.

The expanded version of the school nurse program would allow nurses to swab mouths and administer medications — options not offered currently.

Jones asked if a nurse was not satisfactory, could that position be replaced. Cessna and Griebel both said they did not know whether the school district could hire or fire, but Griebel said she would prefer to think of it as a partnership. Cessna said a contract could be written with any conditions.

“Obviously they’re doing this for profit,” said board member Jeff Lewis. “Have we looked into doing a similar program ourselves?”

“We have inquired to see if that’s possible,” Griebel answered. “In conversations that we’ve had with outside agencies, a lot of their profits would come from billing the insurance companies.”

Liability issues are also a concern, as Lewis pointed out, in any situation. Cessna interjected that most for-profit entities had considerations of liability.

“We’re in the education business, we’re here to educate kids,” Griebel said. “But we’re finding that we’re providing a whole lot more to our kids than just education.”

Jones said it did appear that the school district would save a substantial amount of money. Lewis reiterated his statement regarding the school’s budget woes.

“I’ve said it before, we put ourselves in the position of having to find money from other avenues because of the irresponsibility that we created about six months ago. And I tried to voice that but nobody cared to listen to me,” Lewis said. “Now we’re having to let 17, 18 employees go because we’re at the brink of the state taking over the school system because of our contingency fund.”

Board chair Joe Karr questioned Griebel on the funding, with Griebel stating money for that program was available.

“So we can pay them,” Karr said. “You’re saying that we’re about to lose our school system.

“That’s because our contingency dropped from 10% to 3%. I’m just telling you that we’ve cut programs left and right and Mrs. Griebel will tell you the same,” he added, as Griebel nodded her head yes.

Board member Brice Hicks said he would never apologize for giving staff raises, although that did drop the contingency fund for the school district with the additional pay.

Questions regarding the progress of the artificial turf at both high school softball and baseball fields also arose during Construction Manager Ray Vaske’s presentation.

Vaske said there is one usable field at each school, showing pictures of the progress of those projects. North Laurel offers the large Jaguar logo while South Laurel hosts a large Cardinal mascot on their field. The remaining field was expected to have turf installed on Tuesday.

The progress at the Laurel County Day Treatment, stating that the old gym — which has historic meaning since its construction by the WPA, formed after The Great Depression — would now serve as a storage space.

“We know that gym has historic value to many people in the community,” Vaske said. “So it will continue to stand and can be used for storage, for the school and other schools if needed.”