District five Clarke County School District Board of Education representative Tim Denson observes at the Sept. 12 Board of Education meeting at the BOE Administrative Offices on 595 Prince Ave. The CCSD currently has two operating health centers and is set to open two more this month. “We need to go further explaining that these centers are not just for the students, but the students’ families,” Denson said. “If mom and dad are not feeling well at home or chronic illness issues then that child is probably not getting all the support that they need (which) might increase the likelihood that they’re missing out on attendance, I really hope that we can get the word out more.” Photo by Grady Dunston
At the Oct. 17 CCSD Board of Education meeting, CCSD personnel discussed health centers across the district.
The Clarke County School District Board of Education held its annual monthly meeting on Oct. 17 at the district office at 595 Prince Ave.
At the meeting, CCSD Director of School Nursing Amy Roark and School-based Health Center Coordinator Meredith Dykes presented an update on the CCSD health centers. The update included long term goals for CCSD health resources, which include incorporating a health center at all four CCSD middle schools within the next five years.
“We’d like to see transportation available to our school based health centers from all of our schools, so even if a student attends a school that doesn’t have the school based health center on campus, they could still easily access those services during their school day through our transportation department,” Roark said.
“We’ve talked for a long time about wanting to have our school campuses be true community hubs, and a great way to do that is by having these health centers. A student’s education is more than just teaching; we have to make sure that they’re healthy,”
— Tim Denson,
district five CCSD Board of Education representative
Two new clinics are scheduled to open this month at Classic City High School and Coile Middle School, both in partnership with MedLink, a national nonprofit that works with health centers across the country. These clinics were implemented following the success of the Clarke and Hilsman Middle School Health Centers, which have both been in operation for over two years.
“They operate similar to the Athens Neighborhood Health Center, which means they bill for services, they accept Medicaid and they have a sliding scale,” Roark said. “At all of our health centers, we have a commitment that no student will be turned away because of an inability to pay.
CThe Clarke County School District Board of Education’s School Based Health Centers Update, presented at the Oct. 17 BOE meeting is shown. The two new CCSD health centers will be providing complete care for all CCSD students and families.”They will also be offering comprehensive medical, behavioral, mental health counseling, dental and vision. Dental and vision (will be) alternating the schools for those services until we need them for five days a week,” CCSD Director of School Nursing Amy Roark said. PDF courtesy of the CCSD
Students can currently schedule appointments at both the Clarke Middle School(706-208-1190) and Hilsman Middle School(706-546-7463) health centers, while students will soon be able to do the same at the new centers. With these opportunities in mind, Tim Denson, district five CCSD Board of Education representative, believes that these clinics are an important space that students and families should take advantage of.
“We’ve talked for a long time about wanting to have our school campuses be true community hubs, and a great way to do that is by having these health centers. A student’s education is more than just teaching; we have to make sure that they’re healthy,” Denson said. “This has been one of the boldest things that the district has taken on and it’s proven it’s working, hence why we’ve now expanded out to four.”
