LEWISTON – The School Committee agreed Monday evening to monitor the number of students visiting nurses at their respective schools to see if more positions are necessary.
The discussion arose after Sara Sims, principal of Robert V. Connors Elementary School, shared data with the committee from the school nurse. It showed that between Aug. 28 and Sept. 20, the nurse had 930 visits from students for “illnesses and meds.”
Sims said, “It breaks down to 54.7 students a day, or 7.8 students per hour” during a 6.5 hour workday. The nurse has “logged in 29 overtime hours so far just to keep student data logged in regarding medication and visits.”
The new elementary school has 724 students.
Committee member Luke Jensen said he wanted to hold a workshop and extend invitations to nurses who work in Lewiston schools to speak about their workload.
He pointed out that two years ago, a librarian came before the committee and “told us that she never had downtime” and was overwhelmed with work. “We took action to add another librarian position. I see a lot of similarities between this situation and that situation.”
Committee member Tanya Whitlow asked Sims what the Maine Department of Education suggests schools have for nurses.
Sims said the National Association of School Nurses suggests one nurse for every 750 students, but also recommends that having one for every 250 students with health conditions.
Connors Elementary “more than meets that threshold,” Sims said.
Chairman Mark Cayer said that while he supported a workshop, he thought the committee “should wait until we have more data to look at before deciding to add another nursing position.”
Jensen said he was “not sure what data will change.”
“We need to justify to our constituents why we want to spend the money,” Cayer said. “I’d like to see a stretch of data, for maybe two or three months, that shows a new position is justified. I just think it’s awfully early to call for that.”
Committee member Thomas Shannon said he wanted to see data from every school in the Lewiston district.
“I’d be interested to know what kind of overtime hours the nurses are putting in,” Shannon said. “I’m not shy about spending taxpayer dollars on things that keep students safe. I need the information to justify the reallocation of funds within the budget. I think we should look back a couple of years and see if students’ visits to the nurse decreased into the second or third month of the school year, or if they increase.”
Jensen agreed to contact Superintendent Todd Finn and see what kind of data would be necessary to hold a workshop with school nurses.
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