Pea Ridge School District is planning to partner with Community Clinic of Northwest Arkansas to create a school-based clinic in the new high school when it opens in the fall of 2020.
School Board members heard a report about plans for the partnership from Amanda Echegoyen, Community Clinic chief operating officer, during their meeting Monday.
The clinic will offer health, behavioral and dental hygiene services to students, staff and faculty members, as well as community members, according to Echegoyen. It will also provide on site training for high school students in the district's health care management training program, according to Superintendent Rick Neal.
Community Clinic currently serves about 37,500 patients in northwest Arkansas at 13 locations, Echegoyen said. The nonprofit provides health, behavioral and dental services to under served communities and addresses problems such as a lack of prenatal care, a lack of dental hygiene and a surplus of children on medicaid without a primary care doctor, she said.
Community Clinic is already serving 200 Pea Ridge residents at its Rogers location and expects to serve many more when the clinic in Pea Ridge opens, she said.
School-based health centers offer the advantages of offering safety and convenience for patients, Echegoyen said. Students who have signed consent forms from their parents can see a provider and their parents don't have to be present, she said.
"It's very convenient for parents who can't miss work," she said.
Community Clinic already has three school-based health centers in Springdale, as well as centers in Fayetteville, Siloam Springs and Prairie Grove, Echegoyen said. The Pea Ridge school-based health center will be the first to offer a student training program, she said.
"We are excited about this project," Echegoyen said. "It's something new and different for us as far as the educational track but we at Community Clinic are big fans of putting students on a career track and certainly in the health care track."
Having students work in the clinic may present some patient privacy challenges and the school and clinic are working through the details, Echegoyen said. For example, students won't be able to be present when a faculty or staff member is visiting the clinic, but they may be able participate with routine vaccinations or in the phlebotomy lab, she said.
Neal said he is pleased with the partnership because it offers an opportunity to provide benefits to the community and to students.
Currently, the high school has about 80 students in the health care management program where they can earn certifications such as certified nursing assistant, patient care assistant and dental assistant, according to Neal. It is one of 10 career and technical pathways the high school provides, he said.
"Our health care management program is probably one of the most successful programs we have at the high school and creating an on site lab has always kind of fascinated me," Neal said.
In other business, the School Board:
• Hired school resource officers Wayne Schoch and Jeff Hunt in partnership with the Pea Ridge Police Department, providing a total of three school resource officers;
• Accepted the resignations of Quentin Snoderly, seventh grade teacher; and Karla Thielemier, kindergarten through sixth grade curriculum instructional director;
• Approved the transfer of one student to the Rogers School District, three students to the Bentonville School District and one student to Van Buren;
• Approved updates to the school policy, as recommended by the Arkansas School Board Association; and
• Approved the transfer of $200,000 from the operating fund to the building fund.
General News on 07/17/2019