District nurse reports steady caseload, immunization clinics and staffing stability

Caitlin Harstad, the lead district nurse, briefed the Kearney School District Board on health services at the May 21, 2025 meeting, reporting staffing stability, ongoing screenings and collaborations with local public health partners.

Harstad said she is in her fourth year with the district and that the district employs seven registered nurses (six with BSN degrees and one working toward a master’s). She told the board that five vacancies during 2024-25 were filled and “everybody is returning next year,” which she described as a “big win.”

On student health data, Harstad said 2,401 students had documented medical conditions during the 2024-25 school year. She said the data run used for the presentation covered activity through April 29 of this year and that since that cut-off the district had recorded an additional 3,640 health-room encounters districtwide.

Harstad described routine collaborations: two annual vaccine clinics at the middle and high school hosted with Clay County Public Health Center, syndromic illness reporting to Derek Williams (epidemiologist at Clay County Public Health Center), dental screenings through a Clay County resource and vision/hearing screenings provided by local partners. She said 65 students held religious or medical immunization exemptions for the year.

Board members asked whether a spike in the 2021-22 counts reflected a definitional change; Harstad said she would investigate. Trustees also asked whether declines in charted health-room visits reflected under-documentation; Harstad said improved charting of even brief visits would be a priority going forward.

Harstad said future work will focus on emergency medical situation awareness and additional professional development for school nursing.

Why it matters: The report outlines staffing stability and public-health partnerships that support immunizations, screenings and communicable-disease monitoring in the district’s buildings.