SCHOOLS

Baldwin district building wellness center

County granting $100,000 for high school

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The Baldwin Board of Education unanimously voted recently to approve a $100,000 Nassau County grant to reconstruct a school health center and nurse’s office at Baldwin High School. According to the district, currently officials are developing the site plans to submit for approval by New York state. There was no word when construction would begin.

Schools Superintendent Dr. Shari Camhi said this is the same wellness center project that was announced in March 2020 as a part of a new partnership with Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow and Long Island Federally Qualified Health Centers, which was scheduled to begin later that fall.

Coronavirus pandemic delays, however, pushed the project to this year, which had to be reauthorized. In 2020, school officials said they expected the project to provide high-quality primary medical care, mental and emotional health services, and supplemental health education services to enrolled students at the high school.

Designed to meet students’ psychosocial and physical needs, the wellness center will serve as a student’s primary-care provider or a complement to services provided by an outside doctor.

The center is to offer same-day and scheduled appointments before, during and after school, providing specialty care in addition to primary care, including behavioral health, dental, optometric, podiatric and care-management services.

The inter-municipal agreement between the Baldwin district and Nassau states that equal access to county residents living outside the district must be granted, specifically the “underserved youth population.” Camhi emphasized, though, that the facility would “serve all Baldwin High School students.”

The county is paying for construction of the center, and will not bear the cost of or incur the liability associated with running it. The center “will be part of our high school's existing physical structure, so it will not cost the district anything,” Camhi said.

The district must follow county regulations during the construction process, including abiding by state standards for contracting with minority- or woman-owned business. The county will provide the funding over the next five years.

At the same school board meeting, the board also expressed a desire to add and renovate the Steele Elementary School elevator and replace the windows at Plaza Elementary School.