Health Department: School-nurse program can't be continued at a lesser level

However, even $425,000 wasn’t enough to cover the department’s liability of $590,000, he said.

School system’s move

Stoner said the health department provided the school system with an answer late in the day on Wednesday about whether the school-nurse program can be continued at a lesser level. The answer is that it can’t, he said.

The next move is the school system’s, Stoner said.

He said it sounds as if the school district doesn’t want to continue the school-nurse program through the health department and would rather try another approach.

School officials have said they will provide health services to students.

County Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox has said there’s no guarantee those services will be provided by the health department, but he and Stoner are working toward a bridge plan to cover the cost of health services for the rest of the summer school sessions, beyond June 30.

Then, they’ll negotiate again regarding health services for the new school year, Wilcox has said.

Wilcox said Tuesday that he and Murray had been talking for about a month about their respective budgets, including the school health services program, but he thought the program would be discussed with health department officials during the upcoming fiscal year.

He said he found out two or three days before the commissioners’ vote that one option Murray was going to present the commissioners was to cut funding for school health services.

But Murray said the concept of cutting the school-nurse program was part of ongoing budget discussions between the county and school system for at least a few weeks.

The day before the commissioners’ vote, the county and school system went over the exact numbers, Murray said.

School officials watched an online telecast of the commissioners’ June 5 discussion and vote, he said.

Staff Writer Julie E. Greene contributed to this story.