Parents, Staff Protest K-L Nursing Cuts

Eliminating two part-time nurses in the proposed Katonah-Lewisboro 2012-13 school budget could cause scheduling and coverage issues, said the district's nursing coordinator, doctor and a few parents at Thursday night's board meeting.

Dr. Louis Corsaro and Pamela Hagele, RN, both said the rising number of students with special health needs and the increasing number of field trips requiring a nurse presence were reasons to retain the positions.

"The nurses were brought on board because of rising enrollment, and I know the pendulum is going the other way—but our office visits are not going down, and the acuity is not going down," said Haegele. "For the small amount of money please keep the nurses. What would happen without them would be unimaginable."

The district, however, maintains that student health and safety will not be compromised by the budget recommendation and released an analysis on Friday to support their position.

The nursing reductions were part of the which eliminates approximately 24 staff positions to save $1.7 million.

Patch requested additional information on Friday regarding the district's reasons for eliminating the positions and received a statement late that afternoon through its public relations firm, Syntax. The information can also be found on the district website. 

The part-time elementary nurse positions were added in the late 1990s when each full time nursing position handled 402 students, according to the district. Today, based upon declining enrollment and the proposed budget recommendation, each full-time elementary nurse would handle 367 students on average, or approximately 9 percent fewer students.

One of the issues raised by Corsaro and Hagele—and supported by a parent of a child with health concerns—was scheduling substitute nurses to cover the school when a school nurse is out sick or required to attend a field trip to care for or adminster medication for students.

"If a nurse is out, she leaves the school unprotected," said Corsaro, describing a visit to where he observed a high volume of traffic from students with health concerns ranging from asthma to labile diabetes and seizure disorders.

Corsaro said retaining the positions was more cost-effective than scheduling substitutes through "rent-a-nurse" services, which he said can average up to $350 per day.

Hagele followed his turn at the podium and said the limited availability of substitute nurses could affect her ability to guarantee a nurse in every school every day, especially when field trips are scheduled. She added that the institutional knowledge the part-timers had about the students and schools was invaluable. She also distributed information at the meeting which provided details about the numbers and types of health issues today's students face.

In its statement, district officials said a recent Northern Westchester BOCES survey revealed Katonah-Lewisboro to be among the most generously staffed in elementary school nurse services and its staff model exceeded that of most surrounding school districts:

Next year our district’s four elementary school populations are projected to range from 325 – 420 students. Comparatively speaking in 2010-11, Bedford CSD has elementary school populations ranging from 291 – 592 students, with each school having one nurse. Chappaqua has enrollments of 476 – 512, with one nurse in each school. Yorktown has enrollments of 463 – 608 students with one nurse in each school. Briarcliff has one nurse for 671 students. Somers, like Katonah-Lewisboro, has 1.5 nurses in one building, and 1.6 in another; however, their enrollments in these two buildings are 741 and 807 students, which are much larger than Katonah Lewisboro’s schools.

District officials said they greatly respected the contributions of its nurses to the health and safety of our students but were mindful of their mandate to be as efficient as possible with precious taxpayer resources.