Prince George's schools outline plan to relaunch school-based wellness centers; community questions Walker Mill placement

Prince George's County Public Schools presented a plan to reopen school-based wellness centers and said it has selected Children's National as the vendor after three solicitations.

The presentation said there are designated spaces in six middle schools and four former high‑school sites (Fairmont, Bladensburg, Northwestern and Oxon Hill) that previously hosted centers. The district and its chosen vendor envision staffing each initial site with a full‑time nurse practitioner, a licensed secretary and a nutritionist shared across sites. Services planned include primary care, mental‑health services, health education and referrals for dental, vision and specialty care.

The school system said: "We, currently in the school system do not have any school based health centers," and that it intends to start by reopening the four high‑school sites and then add two additional sites each year based on a needs assessment completed with community input. The district described a proposed contract with Children's National priced at $1,700,000 per year for five years, pending Board of Education approval.

Why it matters: school‑based health centers bring primary care and behavioral health services directly to students, which the presenters said reduces barriers to care and can support academic success. The selection of a single large vendor and the planned phased rollout prompted questions from council members and community health centers about how the work will integrate with existing federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and how site choices were made.

Councilmember Begay pressed the district on why Walker Mill Middle School was not among the first sites; Walker Mill was cited repeatedly by councilmembers and county health staff as a community with clear need. School and county officials said they used a community needs assessment to prioritize openings and that the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) must approve each site under the state’s school‑health center rules. The district said the Board of Education vote on the Children's National contract was scheduled for the next day and that operational launch was more likely in late fall or winter (November–January) rather than the start of the school year in September.

Community health center representatives said they were not invited into the contract selection and asked how services would be coordinated. "If the federally qualified health care centers could be a part of that, I'm pretty sure there's a lot of work overall," said a representative of La Clinica del Pueblo. School staff replied that the RFP was reissued three times and Children's National was the only respondent, and that the district intends to contract with community mental‑health providers for that component even if Children's National provides primary medical services.

County health department staff offered to assist with MDH approval and with historic program information. The health department noted the approval process moved from the State Department of Education to MDH and described it as lengthy. The department also said it has historical data supporting earlier site selections from the 1990s but that community needs have shifted.

The school system said it had received more than 300 responses to its needs‑assessment survey and had a $100,000 Maryland Department of Health planning grant to analyze next steps; a second year of the grant was reserved for implementation tasks such as site improvements and equipment (for example, vaccine refrigerators tied to generators).

Ending: school officials said they will proceed with Board of Education approval, finalize required policies and procedures for MDH review, and begin community outreach and consent enrollment once MDH approvals and vendor onboarding are complete. Council and county health staff said they will follow up with the district and the board chair about Walker Mill and coordination with FQHCs.