Next school year, students and staff of the North Beach School District won’t have to go far to receive primary healthcare. For some, a short stroll down the hallway will do.

Plans to bring a school-based health center to North Beach Middle/High School became official last month when the state Legislature approved its funding and the North Beach School Board, followed by the Grays Harbor County Board of Commissioners, rubber stamped an agreement for the project, a collaboration between the school district, Grays Harbor County Public Health and the Quinault Indian Nation.

This year the Legislature funded a $250,000 startup grant for the North Beach center, plus a $150,000 grant for operations in year two and further funding for years three and four. Once the center is up and running, it’s likely to receive yearly funding from the state.

After a year of planning, the goal is to have the clinic up and running for the start of the 2023 and 2024 school year, said Mike McNickle, director of Grays Harbor County Public Health.

Before that can happen, public health needs to hire a medical provider to run the center through a contract with the county. McNickle said the provider must be at least a certified nurse practitioner and able to treat patients of all ages. Providers for school-based health centers are rarely medical doctors, McNickle said.

The services of that provider will enhance, rather than replace, the duties of Ann Allen, the existing school nurse, and won’t require the district to add staff.

Allen said the clinic will allow the nurse and the provider to seamlessly work together: If a student feels sick, for example, Allen can administer initial tests, and then refer the student to the health center, where, with parental permission, they would receive a full evaluation and leave with a prescription, diagnoses or referral for more care.

That’s opposed to the current system, where the nurse would send a sick kid home to attend an otherwise far-away clinic before they can return to school.

“It’s a huge difference for absenteeism and kids missing school and illnesses that just plague them and grow on when we could’ve been able to solve the problem,” Allen said.

The clinic will provide other basic care like physicals and vaccinations, McNickle said, but not emergency procedures or surgeries. All district students and staff will be eligible for care through the school-based health center, according to McNickle’s recommendation to the school board. It will be up to the board to make future decisions about the scope of the center’s services.

McNickle said he is working with the district and the provider to create an “opt-in” consent form for the center.

“Parents can read it over and decide whether or not they want their kids to be seen by a provider in the school,” McNickle said, adding that students who aren’t opted-in could still be given care in situations of crisis or immediate need.

Allen said the district is working on a solution to provide transport for students in other schools to the clinic in the middle/high school.

The health center will operate in the space of the school nurse and counselor, Allen said, a site recommended by the Washington School-Based Health Alliance. The county will contract this summer to complete internal construction, including added walls, sinks and plumbing, and dividing the space into three separate rooms — two exam rooms and a counseling space.

While minor, the work requires permitting and currently presents the biggest barrier to opening the center on time, McNickle said. McNickle said he planned to meet this week with the district building manager and an architect to develop a construction plan.

Through counseling, the clinic will also provide behavioral and mental health services, a major need for outlying areas like Ocean Shores, and especially for youth, according to an assessment published last year by Grays Harbor County Public Health.

Public health also conducted a needs assessment specific to North Beach to find out which services would most benefit students. Allen said the assessment matched the ideas that, as the district nurse, already had in mind for the needs of the district.

That assessment, along with the overall model for the center, was completed using a $50,000 planning grant received from the state Department of Health last June. In 2021, the Legislature directed the department to establish a school-based health center office and expand the centers in areas previously underserved.

More than 65 school-based health centers operate in 25 districts across the state, including in Elma, but that center is not under the administration of county public health.

Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.