The February 17th school board meeting was well attended by our nurses and concerned families, who testified on school and program closures. There was so much testimony that the meeting did not end until Midnight, and even then, 5 in-person testifiers will have to wait for the next meeting, February 24th. The District rolled out an amended budget and proposed cutting only 18.5 nurse positions, instead of the 25 originally proposed, but still supported a regional model.
Eleven nurses testified and brought up compelling reasons to stay with the vision of one nurse in every school. We will post a link to audio of the meeting, since that will be the best way to review the wonderful testimony we heard. Several parents of students with severe diabetes spoke in our favor, as well, and the overalL sense of the room was support for nursing in the schools. We have suggested that the School Board develop a collaborative process for us to share the realities of our mission and workload in the schools, to learn more about how important it will be to retain the one nurse/one school vision. We will post more talking points soon, so keep checking that page.
There was not enough time to vote on any of the closures or efficiencies suggested at this meeting, and we suspect that next week's meeting, Feb 24th, will have full agenda. Although a final vote on the amended budget is expected at that meeting, we would not be surprised if the timeline is extended further.
