Madison Elementary School Clinic To Open in Time for School Year
Joselyn King Trending
A new health clinic at Madison Elementary School is nearly complete and will be open in time for the new school year.
The Ohio County Board of Education on Monday evening approved the last payments to contractor JD&E for renovations at the school to build out the clinic space, and the work is nearly done, according to David Crumm, director of operations for Ohio County Schools.
Superintendent Kim Miller added that she plans to have a ribbon cutting for the new clinic, but it won't happen for about a month. The opening will instead take place sometime during the third week of August, prior to the start of school.
Board President David Croft suggested board members get a tour of the facility, and Miller said she would schedule a future board meeting to take place at the Madison building.
Board members approved a memorandum of understanding with WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital last November to start a medical clinic at Madison Elementary School.
Under the policy, the clinic would start out by treating only students at Madison to initially avoid the privacy issues of treating older youths.
WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital will oversee the clinic and provide a nurse practitioner, who would be present at Madison for a total of eight hours per week. The times are to be determined.
Consent forms permitting a student to be treated at the clinic will be sent home for parents to sign at the start of the school year. Then, if a child seems ill at school, an administrator will call the parent and ask if they permit their child to go see the nurse practitioner at the clinic.
The parent will have the option to come to the school for the examination if they wish. Otherwise, they will be called with the results of the examination.
In other matters, Croft questioned an expenditure by the school district for $5,125 from Blick Art Materials for "warehouse construction paper."
"It seems like a lot," Croft said.
Crumm explained that art paper used throughout school district is bought in one bulk order, then shipped out to the schools as art teachers request it. The order isn't just construction paper, but it includes paper for drawing and whatever is needed in the curriculum, according to Raquel McLeod, director of student services.
"I can remember one or two years when we actually ran out of construction paper," said board member Andy Garber, a former principal in the school district. "That's an important thing for our elementary students."
Monday's meeting took place in Wheeling City Council chambers at the City-County Building in downtown Wheeling as construction continues to repair recent flood damage to the school district's central office in Elm Grove.
The next board meeting is set for 6 p.m. July 28 at a location to be announced.