At a Nov. 2 Enterprise School Board Meeting, Winding Waters Medical Clinic withdrew a proposal for a school-based health center to treat underserved children and other students at the school. While the proposal met with initial acceptance from the school board, subsequent public meetings indicated strong public opposition, which eventually made its way to school board meetings.

School board member Nils Christoffersen said the board received the proposal from Winding Waters in the latter half of 2014. The SBCH proposal stemmed from a grant that Winding Waters received for a community health center.

“Given the evidence we were presented with of the need and benefit from such a service and the fact it would be provided at virtually no cost to the school district except for provision of the space, we unanimously endorsed a letter of support that was part of their grant package,” Christoffersen said.

Winding Waters was awarded the grant about a year later. Christoffersen said board discussions started in earnest about renovating a space at that point. Around the same time the state legislature increased funding for school health centers, a move that brought criticism from groups opposed to school-based clinics.

“Those concerns certainly seemed to resonate with parts of our school community, which led to the community discussions,” Christoffersen said.

At that point, Christoffersen advocated that the board step back and slow down from making a decision to open the clinic because of the divisiveness it was creating within the community as well as the board, school administration and teaching staff.

“The school district’s primary mission is to educate our kids,” Christoffersen said. He added that while he understood that health care, nutrition and other forms of support are directly related to student performance, they are not the district’s mission and purpose.

Other school board members harbored similar thoughts.

During the Oct. 5 board meeting, Superintendent Brad Royse read a letter from Winding Waters asking the board to table the issue. Board member Adrian Harguess moved to table the matter and the motion passed. Christoffersen suggested that at least some school board members keep abreast of community discussion on school health care.

The following board meeting on Nov. 2 saw Winding Waters officially withdraw the SBHC proposal.

“The challenge will be: Can we find other options that are less divisive and that we have the financial viability to provide,” Christoffersen said. “I’m very eager for our school board, the school district and school community to take on that challenge and address what appears to me to be a real need.”