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Board approves health‑services restructuring: nurse FTE reduced, health‑room assistant added
Summary
After debate about student medical needs and staffing models, the board approved a plan to reduce one nurse FTE, add a full‑time health‑room assistant so each building has coverage, and eliminate the district director of health services.
The Beloit School District board on June 23 approved a restructuring of the district’s health services staffing that reduces nursing full‑time equivalents, adds health‑room assistant coverage in each building and eliminates the district director of health services position as part of budget reductions.
Dr. Gordon said the option presented would reduce two nurse FTEs, add a health‑room assistant and reduce the director position for estimated savings in one option of roughly $273,700, but cautioned the delivery of services would change. “The nurses are the ones who do prep all of the field trip materials… the health room assistants don’t do that,” she told the board, noting nurses would need to alter how they work and some duties could shift to a coordinator stipend if nurses are spread more thinly.
Board members debated safety and logistics. Carol Fox said she favored a restructuring that would leave three full‑time nurses and health‑room assistants in every building while carving a coordinator stipend out of savings; Megan Miller and others said they did not want reductions implemented without a detailed plan showing how students’ medical needs would be met.
An initial motion to reduce two nurse FTEs was amended on the floor to a reduction of one nurse FTE; that amendment passed (roll call recorded 4–3). The amended motion — reduce nursing staffing by one FTE, add a full‑time health‑room assistant so every building has an HRA, and eliminate the director of health services — then passed on roll call (recorded as unanimous in the transcript roll call that followed).
The administration said more operational detail will follow, including plans for ambulance responses, coverage rotations and any Medicaid‑billing or other revenue implications.
What happens next: Administration will draft the operational plan that specifies who performs which duties, any needed stipends for lead nurses, and metrics to monitor health office visits, ambulance calls and continuity of care across buildings.
