NAHUNTA — Board of Education members were received an update on the nearly completed school-based health clinic at Brantley County High School during a called meeting.
The partnership is between the Brantley County School System and Coastal Community Health.
Student Services Coordinator Teri Hendrix and Facilities Director LaVance Gay spoke of the project being housed in the BCHS football locker room during the 2 p.m., Thursday, April 2 called meeting.
“We are almost there,” said Hendrix of getting the facility ready. “Coastal Community Care can start moving into the building Wednesday (April 9). We we should have a fully functioning clinic when we return from spring break. So we’re very, very excited about that.”
The clinic will provide a variety of services to both students and staff in the school system. The health center aims to improve access to healthcare, promote overall well-being, prevent illnesses and address health issues which may impact academic success.
The services offered are primary healthcare, minor injury treatment, mental health services, physicals/screenings and chronic conditions management (asthma, diabetes, etc.).
Gay said the medical partners were “all smiles” when they inspected the building.
“They feel like it’s more than adequate,” said Gay. “It’s just exactly what they need. So, it was good to see that as they’re coming in they were happy customers.”
Students must have a signed consent form and parent participation to be seen in the school clinic. Consent forms can be picked up from the school nurse, the Brantley County Schools district website and at The Heron Health Clinic.
Superintendent Dr. Kim Morgan asked Hendrix and Gay about a soft grand opening and then a big grand opening with the board there and community partners as school starts back.
“We want to kind of just take it slow as we go and work with educating the community on what we’re doing, educating the parents on our clinic, and just doing a soft opening from now until the close of school,” explained Hendrix. “We will be doing some educating over the summer with some publicity about our clinic. We plan to have a grand opening when we do open houses for our schools in August.
“I think that’ll give us some time to work on the permission forms, answer any questions our parents may have, and allow everybody to just kind of get to know a little more about our clinic. Since we are a little behind schedule, we feel like that’s just what’s going to work better at this point.”
Gay said another reason to hold off the grand opening until August is the finishing work outside the building.
“We don’t have the color we’re going to paint the building yet,” he explained. “We’ve got to make those colors match. We want that building to tie into our bigger project. We’ll also have an awning out front to make it look fresh and professional.”
Hendrix said Coastal Community Care is going to be flexible with its hours during the summer when athletes are on campus for workouts.
Assistant Superintendent and Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Dr. Angela Haney did a video presentation showing Nahunta Primary School students, faculty and special guests participating in a read-athon.
Following a 20-minute executive session to discuss personnel, board members returned to render their decisions.
The board accepted Retiree resignations from Kelli Edgy, Waynesville Primary School teacher, and Kim Martin-Mattox, Nahunta Primary School teacher.
Board members accepted the resignations of Angie Steve Lee, Nahunta Elementary School teacher; Leslie Wilson, Nahunta Elementary School teacher; Randall Kinkade, Hoboken Elementary School custodian; Marvin Gray, Jr., BCHS teacher/coach; and Carol Thompson, School Nutrition assistant.
The board approved the superintendent’s recommendations to hire Kelly Tatum, Media Specialist at Atkinson Elementary School; Alexander Pollock, teacher at Atkinson Elementary School; Hannah Stevens, teacher at Nahunta Elementary School; Caroline Thornton, teacher at Hoboken Elementary School; Elena Garbett, paraprofessional BCHS; Blake Johns, Director of Finance and Federal Programs; Dr Christopher Harris, Director of School Nutrition and Operations.
Board members approved the transfers of teacher Richard Gill from BCHS to Atkinson Elementary School; Macayla Dunsmore, parapro, from Nahunta Elementary School to Nahunta Primary School; Gracie Lariey from Atkinson Elementary School to Nahunta Elementary School; and PE teacher Evan Minter from BCHS to Hoboken Elementary School.
The final action was the addendum approval of Patrick Stieve as BCMS assistant football coach.
