The Board of Education will be sending a letter to state officials in support of funding school-based health care centers, like the one recently opened at Newtown Middle School, in the state’s proposed budget.

As Chair Keith Alexander explained during his board’s Tuesday, April 21, meeting, the letter was drafted by school board Secretary Kathy Hamilton.

“The state in [its] budget is currently reducing the amount available for health care centers and we would like, as a board, to let the state know how much we as a board appreciate our health care center already,” said Mr Alexander, “and how much we would like to see the full funding for health care centers.”

After discussion, Mr Alexander said the letter would be sent with the full support of the board.

A celebration of the opening of Newtown Middle School’s school-based health center was held on March 13.

As the school board’s letter, which was shared during the meeting, explained, the school board accepted a $198,211 grant from the Connecticut Department of Public Health on September 16, 2014, to establish the school-based health center for Newtown Public Schools.

“We officially celebrated it’s grand opening on March 13, 2015,” the letter continues, “Only a short time later, we learned that Governor Malloy’s budget package reduced funding for school-based health centers 8.5 percent over the next two years. The Newtown Board of Education finds this disheartening.”

Newtowner Melanie Bonjour, the school health center manager for the Danbury-based Connecticut Institute for Communities, also attended Tuesday’s meeting and addressed to the state’s budget proposal. She explained the state’s proposed cuts will affect any programs funded by the state. She also said “those of us that have worked in the school-based health center world” are made aware of cuts in the budget and typically, “navigate through the cuts to try to prevent the cuts from happening to the programs.”

Ms Bonjour continued, “The situation we face now is really no different, with the exception of the state is in a little bit more of a deficit. We have worked very hard over the years to develop strong supporters in the state legislature to educate them of the value and the effectiveness and the cost effectiveness of school-based health centers…”

While Ms Bonjour said “we will anticipate some cuts to the budget,” she also said her organization advocates for the cause and has built a sustainability plan for the short-term and long-term.

“So we are fully prepared to address the budget cuts,” said Ms Bonjour.

Saying the program at NMS is running smoothly, Ms Bonjour also said she is confident the program will flourish.

Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, said the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents recently took a “strong position” in opposition to the proposed reduction.

Ms Bonjour later explained that if school-based health center spending is reduced in the state’s budget over the next two years, the NMS school-based health center would experience, she estimated, a $9,000 reduction in the next fiscal year and an additional $9,000 “above that.”

“We have a process in place for a sustainability to plan to anticipate such budget cuts,” said Ms Bonjour. “We do bill for services when we can, and the amount of funding that comes back to the school-based health center for Medicaid and third-party billing helps to offset any potential cuts and increases that we have.”

The school board’s letter further reads, “The Newtown Middle School health center is important to our community as a long-term solution to provide health and behavior health support services to address a documented increase in student visits to the nurse’s office and a reported waiting list for community-based mental health services requested by middle school aged children in the Newtown community. While there are a plethora of mental health services currently in the community as a response to the Sandy Hook crises, it is projected that the external grant sources will either diminish or end, while the needs for services will not.”

The letter continues to say the board and district administration spent “a great deal of time” researching school-based health centers, with concerns focusing on the needs of the community, student access, privacy and confidentiality, and liability of cost.

“Since the Sandy Hook tragedy, visits to the middle school nurse’s office increased more than any other school, over 30 percent… Students who were fourth graders at Sandy Hook School on the day of the shooting will begin middle school at the start of the 2015-16 school year. We felt it was imperative that the health clinic be fully operational when they start at the middle school.”

The letter concludes, “The Newtown Board of Education has invested resources to support our middle school health center and we are asking the governor and the legislature restore funding to school-based health centers in Connecticut. It is a small investment for the well-being of our students.”