The Hancock County Board of Education acquired an replace Monday on the operations of two school-based well being facilities within the county, with some members indicating the chance of increasing this system sooner or later.
Lisa Mowry, chief govt officer of CHANGE, Inc. was on hand to supply the board with the report. CHANGE at the moment operates well being facilities at Weirton Elementary School and on the campus of Weir High and Weir Middle faculties.
“For the past six years, we have steadily grown,” Mowry reported.
The school-based well being facilities fall below the auspices of CHANGE’s household medical care applications, with the company working 13 such facilities within the Tri-State Area.
In the Hancock County Schools system, CHANGE started on the Weirton Elementary School, offering service to 462 college students in 2017. The Weir Complex School-Based Health Center opened in 2019, at which era a complete of 901 college students have been offered care, with 685 at Weirton Elementary and 216 on the Weir campus.
Those numbers have elevated through the years, with Mowry indicating a complete of 1,097 college students served in 2020, 1,354 in 2021 and, thus far in 2022, there have been 917 college students served with 436 at Weirton Elementary and 481 on the Weir campus.
Board member Larry Shaw requested whether or not CHANGE receives any federal funds, and whether or not it requires them to observe any particular mandates from the federal authorities. Mowry famous some federal funds help choose applications, with a lot of their companies funded by grants and foundations, and most of their mandated actions revolving across the submitting of yearly studies and audits.
Board Vice President Ed Fields requested in regards to the chance of increasing the school-based well being middle program to different faculties in Hancock County, saying he is aware of there beforehand had been some funding accessible.
“I think that funding has gone away,” he mentioned.
Mowry famous some of these funds had been offered by way of the CARES Act and have been now not accessible, and funding which is obtainable won’t permit for development of new services.
“We can furnish the space and we can operate the space,” she mentioned.
Mowry famous, along with Hancock County, CHANGE additionally operates school-based well being facilities in Brooke and Jefferson counties.
