NORWAY – Stomach aches, earaches, eye irritation, a pencil in the fingertip, diabetic checks – Guy E. Rowe Elementary School nurse Kathy Greenleaf sees it all.

“Sometimes I see 50 to 60 kids a day,” said Greenleaf as she maneuvered easily in her cramped office space from one child with a stomach ache to another who had a small bit of graphite from a pencil in her fingertip.

Twenty years after landing the school nurse job, Greenleaf said she still loves her job. “I love the kids,” she said of the reason she stays year after year.

The elementary school of 400-plus students has a full-time nursing staff – Greenleaf splits her job with another nurse. Because of that the school houses several students with serious health concerns who are not Norway residents and a large special education population, many with medical needs, she explained. Additionally, the school has education technicians who are also LPNs and even a secretary who is a trained emergency medical technician.

Few things have changed in the past two decades, said Greenleaf, whose dedication was recognized by the school board at a recent meeting. Some students still arrive at school not dressed appropriately for the weather. Others come to the nurse’s door daily complaining of an ailment but really looking for a chance to get out of a class or for some conversation. Head lice is still a No. 1 concern of parents.

“Head lice – nothing, nothing causes as much hysteria,” said Greenleaf of the persistent little bugs that attach themselves to children’s heads in schools across the country each year.

As in other parts of the country, asthma in children is a problem that seems to be growing each year. “There’s a lot of asthma,” said Greenleaf, who attributes a rise in the cases she sees in part to numerous parents who still smoke and students being inside more during the winter.

While the goal is to have outside recess as much as possible, some days it just isn’t possible.

Friday, with the temperature at 13 degrees and a wind chill factor as low as 15 degrees below zero, Principal George “Beaux” Sincerbeaux quickly decided to cancel outside recess.

He was clearly disappointed as were many of the students, but not all of them.

“I’m the best nagger in the room,” Greenleaf said of students who, intentionally or not, don’t dress appropriately for outside recess. She discreetly leaves several pairs of old sneakers in various sizes outside her office door for students who may have forgotten to wear their sneakers for gym.

“There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing choices,” Greenleaf told one student quoting an old Maine saying.

As a school nurse, Greenleaf not only tends to illnesses and injuries, conducts vision, hearing and scoliosis screening, but she must work in conjunction with parents, physicians and the community at large. “We have an excellent relationship with the hospital,” she said of nearby Stephens Memorial Hospital. She also credits the local businesses, which employ many of the parents and are always willing to make the extra effort to track down a parent even if he or she is working on the road.

Greenleaf, who has lived in Norway since the mid-1980s, said she makes the most of her closet-size two-room office, but she hopes to expand next year into another larger space to provide more privacy with the never-ending line of sick students.

“I have a stomach ache. It feels like someone stabbed me,” moaned a youngster who stood forlornly at her office door. A quick call to his father made him feel better.

Sometimes that’s all it takes, Greenleaf said as she turned to take care of the next little patient.