School-based clinic seeing students

Sisters School District's new school-based health clinic is seeing its first "patients."

Deschutes County Public Health Nurse Kate Moore gave the board a quick update on the clinic at their November 3 meeting. The clinic is just now beginning to see students in a portable classroom on Sisters High School grounds.

She reported that the remodeling of the portable used for the clinic has encountered a snag. Due to the design of the portable's HVAC system, floor-to-ceiling walls cannot be used to enclose the exam room. Moore reports that due to confidentiality requirements of state and federal laws, floor to ceiling walls are necessary.

A redesign of the existing portable's HVAC system is cost-prohibitive, but an alternative has presented itself. Moore explained that a federal grant for up to $500,000 for school-based health clinics is available. These funds can be used to acquire or construct a facility for school-based health clinics. The developers of McKenzie Meadows have offered a land grant to house such a facility.

There are two options in applying for the grant. Sisters School District can apply for the grant (with significant guidance and input from the health department), or the county can apply for both the federal funds and the land grant.

On a 4-1 vote, the board elected to draft a letter of support for the county to apply for the federal grant and the land grant. In this scenario the county would own the land and be responsible for all school-based clinic operating expenses. Restrictions on the federal grant would preclude the use of the facility for anything other than a school-based health clinic now or in the future.

Dissenting board member Cheryl Stewart strongly supports the concept of the school-based health center, but would like to see the pilot run for a year or two and then analyze the results before committing to a permanent facility. The deadline for the grant application is December 1. Other board members pointed to the success of the similar clinics in other Central Oregon school districts in their early support for a more permanent clinic in Sisters.

In other business, Sisters High School cooking teacher Janice Comfort proposed reopening a student-run restaurant one day a week. This highly successful program was ended three years ago amid concerns that it would compete with the district's food services program. Comfort has garnered the support of Leland Bliss, facilities and nutritional services coordinator, and the food services staff.

Board members remembered the earlier version of this full-service-line restaurant with praise and enthusiasm.

The restaurant program is self-supporting and actually turns a small profit which is used to fund scholarships for those pursing a culinary or hospitality services career. The Thursday service may start as early as the week before Christmas break.