After an absence of several years, a popular community program is looking to return to a revitalizing Belle Haven neighborhood.
At the time of its closure in 2015, a clinic operated by Ravenswood Family Health Network (RFHN) in the former Onetta Harris Community Center served approximately 4,000 clients each year. A new version of the clinic aims to get things back on track after its planned opening on the Belle Haven elementary campus in 2026.
That prospect came to fruition because the Ravenswood City School District Board of Trustees on Nov. 9 approved a long-term ground lease agreement with RFHN to develop a 6,000-square-foot comprehensive health clinic along the corner northeast of the campus grounds.
“This is what the community wanted,” RFHN CEO Luisa Buada said in an interview. “It will be co-located with the school, which is great. We will be able to provide preventative services to students.
But services would also extend to the rest of the largely underserved neighborhood on Menlo Park’s east side.
“There will be access to the elderly, the parents of the children, their brothers and sisters and people from the neighborhood,” Buada said. “Anyone who wants to come to the clinic will have the opportunity to come. This just helps bring healthcare closer to those who live in Belle Haven.
The clinic is expected to serve about 4,350 patients annually after three years of operation, she said. It would provide family medical care, preventative and restorative dental programs, vision and hearing exams, social services, and various other health and wellness-related offerings.
Buada also noted that RFHN is a federally qualified health center, meaning the Belle Haven clinic would welcome patients regardless of their financial ability or health insurance status.
“So that’s one of the benefits, besides the convenience of being nearby,” she said. “We accept health insurance, but we also offer sliding pricing based on income and number of people in the family. We offer a significant number of discounts to people to make it affordable.
RFHN would build the clinic using modular construction at a cost of about $6 million, including equipment and technology, she said. The clinic could open in spring 2026.
The district emphasized that the modular design provides maximum flexibility for future uses of the site, unlike a permanent type of construction.
If the lease expires, the town said, RFHN could easily remove the modular spaces, returning the site to what it is today.
This scenario would leave room for additional classrooms or other educational purposes for the school if needed, the district said.
According to the district, the lease would generate $100,000 in rent, that amount in direct student services or a combination of the two each year.
“As long as these direct services to Ravenswood students exceeded rent, (RFHN) would not pay rent that year,” William Eger, the district’s business manager, said in a presentation at the board meeting. administration of October 26. “If the rent does not exceed, then they will pay the difference based on their rent. »
According to the results of a district survey of possible uses for the site, 51 percent of people surveyed in Belle Haven favored a health clinic, compared to 25 percent for a picnic area with parking space and 24 percent for tennis courts.
“The Ravenswood City School District is always looking for ways to use our spaces to benefit the entire community,” board President Jenny Varghese Bloom said in an email to this publication. “So when we had the opportunity to use our land at Belle Haven Elementary School to benefit the Menlo Park community, we were thrilled to welcome (RFHN) back.” We want to continue to advocate for and serve Menlo Park and partner with RFHN to continue the work to meet the health needs of the Belle Haven community.
The return of the clinic would come as Belle Haven is experiencing a revival. A major renovation of Belle Haven Elementary School is set to begin while the new Belle Haven Community Campus nears completion in the same location as the former Onetta Harris Community Center at 100 Terminal Ave.
The neighborhood’s history of a clinic dates back to the mid-1990s, when San Mateo County opened one in Onetta Harris.
“The Belle Haven Clinic was originally run by San Mateo County for adult patients only, primarily seniors,” Buada said. When RFHN took over in 2006, “we opened it as a family medicine site, serving pediatrics, women’s health, prenatal care, adults with chronic illnesses, and health coaching “.
But in 2015, she said, RFHN closed the clinic, moving staff and patients to a newly opened health center at 1885 Bay Road in East Palo Alto.
In the long run, she said, the clinic, which was then about 2,000 square feet, faced demand challenges. But the new one, three times larger, should meet the needs of the community well.
“We appreciate the trust the school board has placed in us,” Buada said, “and we will certainly step up our efforts to meet their expectations.” We are strongly committed to the children and families of the school district and hope that the clinic co-located with the school will make a difference in the health of the children there and that we can make an important contribution to their health long-term.
