Much of Monday’s
school board meeting was consumed with discussion of a proposal from the Seton
Health Care Network, which now runs Brackenridge and the Children’s Hospital of
Austin, to manage and operate health services for AISD. Briefly stated, the
plan would keep all 30 or so registered nurses who currently have contracts
with AISD, and add an indeterminate number of less-trained “school health
aides” into the mix. Instead of establishing an expensive, school-based
delivery system, the Seton plan would be geared toward helping children and
their families find community-based health care and human services, said
Charles Barnett, chief executive officer of Seton Health Care Network. Deputy
superintendent Kay Psencik said the plan would more than double the number of
hours of health services that campuses currently receive.
But concerns burbled among a few board members about Seton’s alliance with the
Daughters of Charity, and therefore, “coming from a Catholic perspective” (in
the words of trustee Jerry Carlson), demonstrating, perhaps, a certain “bias”
in uh, er, delivering some services for students? Translation: Does AISD’s
acceptance of this contract mean that nurses cannot counsel pregnant teens or
do sexuality education? Barnett rambled a bit, explaining that certain “ethical
and religious directives” apply to Seton employees when they’re on Seton
ground, but those directives become more flexible when Seton’s the visiting
team, so to speak. Superintendent James Fox leapt into the discussion at that
point, emphasizing that school board policy would drive what Seton does on AISD
campuses.
Glenda Parks, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Austin, said she,
too, had been assured that Seton’s entrance into the scene wouldn’t change
things. But she is not quite convinced that having the Daughters of Charity
running AISD health care will mean no changes. “We just want to know, do
secular guidelines apply?” Parks said. AISD nurses are the first point of
contact for many pregnant teens, and nurses must be able to freely talk and
make appropriate referrals, Parks said. The fear of being judged weighs heavily
into teens’ decisions to seek help from adults, and if word gets out that a
school nurse can’t be trusted, then the nurses will be far less effective than
they could be, Parks added.
Despite concerns, in general, board members seemed pumped on the idea. They’ll
vote on the still-evolving proposal at their next regular meeting on August 26.
While AISD children clearly need more, not less, on- site health services, the
devil’s always in the details, isn’t it? The details have continued to shift
around since Fox announced in May that he wanted to do this. And that is the
problem.
Other Board News: Fox continued instituting the tremendous turnover among
campus principals he has pushed since his arrival in January 1995. Thirty-three
out of 96 schools either have or will soon have new principals, and, according
to Fox, there is more to come. “We are in the process of upgrading the
leadership in this school district, and I am not finished.”
Of the 11 new principal appointments that the board approved on Monday,
notables include the much-decorated Tina Juarez, who left Webb Jr. High to
become Austin High’s principal and was succeeded at Webb by Zavala Elementary’s
innovative Al Mindiz-Melton, and super-nice-guy Patrick Patterson, former
principal at Reilly Elementary, who was promoted to Dobie Middle School.
Don’t forget: School starts Tuesday, Aug. 13.
This article appears in August 9 • 1996 and August 9 • 1996 (Cover).