Penn Yan considers school health center

PENN YAN--The Penn Yan school board listened to a presentation from Mary Zelazny, chief executive officer of Finger Lakes Community Health (FLCH), about the possibility of creating a school-based health center that can be accessed by all students within the district.
The CEO started with a brief overview of her health organization. The original mission at FLCH was to serve the region's agricultural workers. In 2009 they became a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and expanded their services to include anyone in the Finger Lakes region. Today, patients of all incomes and ethnicities access their health center locations. As a FQHC, Finger Lakes Community Health offers discounts for services, regardless of a patient's insurance status, based on income and household size.
Zelazny said they strive to bring a new standard of healthcare to our region through education, technology and preventive care. Patients have access to a team of doctors, dentists, nurses, physicians' assistants and dental hygienists. She said they have experts in the fields of medical and dental care, reproductive health services and behavioral health counseling. They also have a multilingual staff that helps patients with non-medical issues such as referrals, follow-up, transportation, financial advocacy and insurance enrollment.
The community organization has already established health centers in Geneva, Penn Yan, Ovid and Sodus.
Zelazny said several of her associates could come in to the school and set up a regular primary care office. Zelazny said her group receives grants from the federal government and the state gets involved to review all of the health procedures and compliance laws.
The health executive said her group has other community centers established in the region and she sees additional school-based centers becoming more popular. Zelazny said if a student is covered by insurance or not covered by insurance, all students can access the school-based health center they are proposing. Besides providing the physical office space at the school, there is no additional cost to district taxpayers for the health partnership. Zelazny said if the school approves the idea, it would take about six months to build out the various elements of a school-based center.
After the presentation, Superintendent Howard Dennis said the board will consider the concept.
Also at the board meeting, Director of Athletics Jon MacKerchar presented information regarding Penn Yan students and their health education curriculum and instructional practices.
MacKerchar said he started looking at this information about a year and a half ago and has now updated with the latest student survey information.
After looking at the results, MacKerchar said some of the recommendations he proposes include the following for the elementary, middle and academy students:
Elementary: Incorporate age appropriate health lessons once a month in physical education class during fitness week, start mental health mini-lessons and conversations two times a year and increase teacher participation with the addition of a part-time health/physical education teacher.
Middle school: Reintroduce health for sixth graders, include the Safe Harbors Love-146 five day curriculum (dealing with internet safety, trafficking, relationships and sexting problems) into eighth grade health class and incorporate mental health and wellness mini-lessons three times per year.
Academy: Include elective courses for seniors that covers CPR and first aid, personal finance, interviewing skills and life skills (laundry, cooking and budgeting).
The public meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m.