By Jami Badershall,Staff Writer

PHILLIPS – Starting this fall, each SAD 58 elementary school will have a half-time nurse, and the high school will have a full-time nurse/health teacher.

“At times we’ve had one nurse for all five schools,” superintendent Quenten Clark said.

The school board will vote at its meeting Thursday whether or not to accept Clark’s recommendation for Diane Wilson of Farmington as the health teacher for Mt. Abram.

The other school nurses will be Wendy Pond covering Strong and Phillips, Helen Targett for Stratton and Madelyn Faraday in Kingfield.

Faraday is a former Boston emergency room nurse and has worked in a cardiac unit. She has been a stay-at-home mom for several years and is returning to the work force as a school nurse.

In the past, the district has relied on HealthReach, through which Pond worked in Phillips, Strong and Kingfield for the past three years, and Targett worked at Mt. Abram and Stratton for one year.

The district needs nurses to be more available within each school, Clark said, especially with increases in allergies, diabetes and asthma among children. Children with disabilities will also have more needed attention within the schools.

“It’ll be a significant change,” he added. “We’ll have a stronger nursing program.”

Pond said she has covered as many as four schools at one time.

“I wasn’t doing an efficient job,” she said.

When she entered the district, the turnover of nurses was high. “I started developing a nursing program from scratch,” she said, adding that things have slowly improved over the years, but with added nurses, “I foresee an excellent program.”

The district’s guidance counselors, social workers and added nurses will help to build SAD 58’s Student Services Program.

“We can address the emotional, psychosocial and physical health for any student that requires it,” Pond said. “The administration in SAD 58 has really supported the Student Services Program by hiring the necessary staff for students.”

Cindy Thomas is the social worker at the high school and is there for students who normally see a counselor once a week or so but need to talk to someone between those sessions, or the “kid who just smashed his locker and needs to talk about it now,” Pond said.

Mike Ellis is the guidance counselor at the high school, but nursing responsibilities often fell on him because there was usually no nurse at the high school when needed.

At the elementary schools, the “poor secretary has to deal with it, and they’re so straight out as it is,” Pond said. “They are good at playing nurse, but now they can focus on their job instead of jumping up 20 times a day to put a Band-Aid on or call a parent or deal with PMS.”

Along with the usual playground accidents and flu outbreaks, Pond said school nurses are having to deal with “more diabetes, more asthma and more intense diagnoses. There’s been an increase with food allergies, and that’s something you really have to be on top of because it can be deadly if a child gets that food in them. Sometimes all they have to do is sniff it.”

With more nurses on duty, more educational opportunities will be possible. In the past, school nurses have been able to touch on topics such as fire prevention, school bus safety, drunk driving, dental care, bike safety and nutrition. “But now we’ll be able to elaborate on those things,” Pond said.

She said they will also have time to do new educational programs like Kick Butts, Volunteer Week, Youth Sport Safety, and asthma and allergy education.