School nursing staff cut in half

Mike Sciacca

Two of the four nurses and an aides caring for students in the

Huntington Beach Union High School District will be let go to save money

in next year’s budget.

The nurses will finish out the school year, but are part of the

district’s plan to eliminate programs and services in the 2002-03 fiscal

year.

At the district’s March 12 board meeting, trustees voted unanimously

to lay off the three employees. The decision eliminates two district

nurses and a media specialist, leaving two, full-time nurses to cover the

eight high schools within the union high school district.

Letters went out on March 15 to the nurses affected by the decision,

informing them of the proposed cuts, said Supt. Susan Roper.

It is required by law that a certificated employee must be notified of

a proposed budget cut by March 15 of each year.

“We have notified some junior employees, including some nurses, with

these letters,” Roper said.

That reserves the possibility that the board could take action

sometime between now and June 30 on the cuts. There is a $2.5-million

target set for program reductions.

A study session will be held on April 22 and a public hearing on the

budget reductions on May 14. No action will be taken until May 28.

The two nurses to remain in the district will be Carol Kanode at Ocean

View High School and Patricia Concepcion at Edison High School’s Special

Abilities Cluster.

“I’m just shocked, surprised and disappointed all at once, especially

at the suddenness of it. We had no warning,” said Kanode, who serves as

coordinator for the Medi-Cal and Healthy Start programs at Ocean View.

Kanode, who has been at Ocean View since the school opened in 1977, is

a member of the Ocean View School District’s board of trustees. She said

that nurses at schools today can be likened to social workers. Their

cadre of duties, she said, includes crisis intervention, counseling, case

management, immunization, health education, special education

assessments, the handling of communicable diseases and referral to

community agencies.

“My greatest concern is that a nurse has to be available to the

students and staff when these needs arise,” Kanode said. “With these

cuts, that just won’t be the case.”

Robin Johnson, the mother of one district high school student, with

two more children entering in the near future, voiced some concern.

“I really think that there needs to be a nurse at every school,” said

Johnson, who is a registered nurse. “I know there are budget cuts to be

made here and there but to me, it seems that there wouldn’t be adequate

care if there isn’t a nurse on each campus.”

Huntington Beach Union High School board member Michael Simons said

that budget cuts are inevitable.

“We’re seeing cuts in the district from administration to classified

employees and it’s never easy when they happen. But, we try to keep them

away from the classroom,” he said.

Kanode remembers a time when schools had up to six counselors and one

full-time nurse on every campus. Proposition 13, she said, changed all of

that. Today, there are no counselors on campus and there are 1 1/2

psychologists at each school, she said.

“On the flip side, though, students today have many more needs than

ever before,” Kanode added. “With these cuts we now will have the least

amount of nurses working in the district since I’ve been here. We see

ourselves as student advocates and if we are not present on campus for

these kids, then who will be?”

* MIKE SCIACCA is the education and sports reporter. He can be reached

at (714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at michael.sciacca@latimes.com.