The East Lansing Public Schools (ELPS) Board of Education met Monday, November 13 for a presentation from Ingham Community Health Center (ICHC) representatives on the opening of a school health clinic in East Lansing High School (ELHS) and the ELHS students involved. in the local chapter of the Multicultural Student Achievement Network (MSAN).
The meeting began with reports from Student Representative Jennifer Rairigh and Superintendent Dori Leyko. The council heard about the high school football team’s progression to the state semifinals on Saturday, November 18 and the recent “Learning Fridays” staff training. During training sessions, staff learned about topics such as mental and emotional health, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and de-escalation strategies.
The school health center is expected to open in January.
One of the highlights of the meeting was the presentation by Kris Drake, executive director of ICHC, and Nancy Diwara, operations manager of the organization’s school health programs, who shared property details of an Ingham County Health Department school health clinic within ELHS. Currently there is 12 health centers in Ingham Countyincluding two school centers in Lansing high schools.
The ELHS health center will typically operate with six staff members: a medical provider, a behavioral health consultant, a nurse, two physician assistants and a community health worker. Staff will eventually provide a full range of services, including vaccinations; physical examinations and sports physicals; mental health assessments, counseling and referrals; as well as referrals for laboratory work or more specialized care. Services at the health centers are provided in partnership with organizations such as Michigan State University, CEI-Community Mental Health, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and Sparrow Health Systems.
The center is expected to begin providing on-site behavioral health care and health education services in January 2024. Drake said he hopes to have the center operating at full capacity as soon as possible.
The center will operate from the converted ELHS Technology Center and will have an internal and external entrance. Additional security measures will be in place to monitor the exterior entrance.
Diwara identified several benefits of the planned collaboration, including more class time for ELHS students who will no longer need to leave the school campus to receive medical care; increased preventive care; and greater accessibility to health care for the East Lansing community as a whole. Anyone ages 4 to 21 will be able to receive care at the health center and will not need to be enrolled in East Lansing public schools. Health insurance is also not compulsory to access care.
“We are excited about this partnership,” Drake said. “We are excited to offer these health care services to students and we are excited to care for the East Lansing community.” It’s high time we did our duty (towards East Lansing).
MSAN at High School plans to create a podcast called “Humanization Station.”
Presentations to the board concluded with an update from Claudia Berton, director of equity and justice for ELPS, and Diana Sanchez, ELHS teacher, who shared the accomplishments of the MSAN student group. The organization is a national coalition of multiracial school districts seeking to improve access, opportunities, and outcomes for students of color.
ELHS MSAN students recently attended a conference in Madison, Wisconsin, where they drafted an action plan for a community intervention to be implemented during the 2024 school year. The plan includes creating a podcast called “Humanization Station,” which will address topics such as race, gender, LGBTQ+, disability, and socioeconomic class.
Last year’s MSAN campaign, “Call Out Microaggressions and Call to Community,” aimed to help ELPS students and staff “identify microaggressions and provide strategies for dealing with them for yourself and for others. This year, MSAN students told the board they would focus on the personal, hoping to “provide a space for people to speak their truth” and “bridge the gap” between students and staff. The first episode of “The Humanization Station” is scheduled for release in January 2024.
The next ELPS school board meeting is scheduled for November 27 at 7 p.m. in the lower level of ELHS.
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