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School nurse warns district growth is stretching nursing staff as board weighs levy
Summary
The district’s school nurse outlined daily medical workloads and safety duties and warned that current staffing leaves some pupils and staff stretched thin. Board members linked nurse staffing proposals to a pending supplemental levy and outlined potential cuts if voters reject it.
Miss Anderson, the district’s school nurse, told the school board that school nursing is far broader than “patching up cuts.” She described routine daily caseloads — about 12 scheduled diabetic check-ins, roughly 10 students receiving midday medications and 15 to 30 walk-ins for illness or injury — and detailed the district’s role in managing individualized health plans and emergency-care protocols for students with potentially life-threatening conditions. “One of my most important responsibilities is managing the students’ medical conditions,” she said, adding that nurses also train staff in CPR and “stop the bleed” techniques and coordinate dental, vision and sealant clinics that are often the only care some students receive.
The presentation framed staffing questions ahead of a May supplemental levy. Board and administration members repeatedly tied decisions on nurse staffing to levy revenue and House Bill 292 state funding. Administration officials said the levy would be used in part to increase nursing capacity — the ballot language proposed adding 0.5 full-time nursing positions to bring the district to three full-time nurses — and explained that if the levy failed, options would include drawing on a $1 million contingency, increasing class sizes, eliminating district-funded transportation for extracurriculars (estimated savings about $100,000), reducing curriculum materials or reducing staff through attrition.
Board members probed legal and procedural constraints. One trustee asked whether the board could change the $12 per $100,000 levy cap after the state’s HB 292 allocation is known; administration explained the district receives a final HB 292 figure in late August and can technically adjust levy levels within a short window but noted that historically the board has not increased the ballot maximum after it was set. Trustees also discussed whether to prioritize nursing hires, counseling services or other classroom protections if the levy fails.
Why it matters: Miss Anderson said current coverage forces school staff and, in some cases, families into difficult choices — including instances where a family was encouraged to transfer a child because the school lacked enough nursing support for that student’s diabetes care. The board faces a near-term decision about how aggressively to ask voters to fund staff increases and which services to protect if new revenue falls short.
What’s next: The district’s budget hearing is scheduled for June 15 and the administrators said they will keep the board updated when the HB 292 allocation is finalized in August. The board flagged the supplemental-levy informational forum scheduled May 13 at EMS for public questions and said it will revisit staffing decisions depending on election results.
