Winona schools expand in-school clinic access, secure $200,000 grant to broaden services
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Summary
District presenters told the board the school-based health clinic expanded counseling and clinic days across sites and has served 131 students to date; the program received a three-year, $200,000 grant to extend services across all school sites and reduce out-of-pocket costs for families.
Winona Area Public School District staff told the board Nov. 11 that the district’s school-based health clinic has expanded clinic and counseling days across school sites and has been awarded a three-year, $200,000 grant to broaden services.
Madeleine (Maddy) Speltz, who led the data update, said the district recorded 131 students served across sites as of Oct. 27 — a substantial increase from about 30 students when data tracking began two years ago. "So far, we've seen 131 students across all of the schools," Speltz said. The program has added counseling days at the high school and middle school and continues to provide clinic services at the ALC and Jefferson.
Speltz and Anne Reebel described outreach and access efforts: open-appointment sessions, parent‑teacher conference outreach, community door‑knocking in partnership with local providers (e.g., Kids First at Maplewood Townhomes), weekly staff emails to advertise openings, and planned free dental clinics in partnership with a children’s dental program that operates on a six‑month cycle.
The presenters said the new three-year grant for $200,000 will help cover services not paid by insurance, reduce costs for families (including co-pays and deductibles), and allow the district to standardize services across all sites. Currently, uninsured or out-of-network costs at some sites are covered by local grant funds; the new funding will expand that support.
Board members asked about the accuracy of reported participation, how data are tracked and whether insurance reimbursement can provide a longer-term funding route. Speltz explained that visit billing follows usual clinic practice (Winona Health bills insurance) and that a state-level effort to create a discrete CPT code for school‑based clinic appointments is in early stages; the district currently bills insurance and applies grants to cover remaining costs. The board discussed tracking metrics beyond patient counts — such as attendance or academic impacts — but presenters noted privacy and data‑system separations prevent direct cross-matching of clinic and student attendance records.
What’s next: staff said they will continue outreach, expand counseling days to additional sites and use the new grant to stabilize and extend services; they will report updates to the board as implementation proceeds.
