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A temporary reprieve for city school nurses
March 24, 2004 Rochester school nurse Judy Hall checks a student for strep throat. Nurses in Rochester city schools will keep their jobs through the end of the school year, thanks to an 11th-hour emergency fund pulled together by business and union leaders. The community foundation was announced after a state Supreme Court justice refused to order the Monroe County Legislature to continue paying for the school nurse services, just two weeks before 77 nurses were to be laid off. The city's three main hospital groups and Blue Cross Blue Shield pledged $250,000 toward the $700,000 needed to keep the nurses in the schools through June, said Rochester Teachers Association President Adam Urbanski. In addition, Urbanski announced that he and other district union leaders would send a joint letter to members seeking individual contributions to the new foundation. The RTA will be asked to make a donation at a meeting next week. "We're hopeful we can come up with a better long-term solution, but for now what's important is protecting our kids," Urbanski said. "This gets us through the school year without endangering the lives of our staff and students." If the nurses had been laid off on April 1, "it would have brought teaching and learning almost to a halt," schools Superintendent Manuel Rivera told reporters. He praised the unions for "stepping up to the plate" to keep the nurses in the schools. Aside from helping to put together the community foundation, union leaders were out front organizing rallies and getting the word out about how critical nurses are in the schools. "For us, it's an issue of safety for the children, but also for our members," Urbanski said. "RTA may not represent the nurses, but teachers and students certainly need them." The funding problem erupted in December when the Monroe County Legislature cut $4 million from the program to help close the county's budget gap. In February, the crisis intensified when 77 school nurses were sent layoff notices effective April 1. The city school district, with support from employee union leaders, filed legal action asking the court to order the county to continue funding. However, in a March 18 decision, state Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Fisher ruled that the county wasn't obligated to pay the nurses even though it has been doing so since 1958. Fisher also ruled that the school district can legally hire nurses, which the district had argued it couldn't do because of an exception in a 1911 law for some urban districts like Rochester. Urbanski noted that in 1977 and again in 2003, the State Education Department advised that the school district does not have the legal authority to hire, contract for, or fund school nurse services. Rivera said he would recommend to the school board that the district appeal the ruling. Urbanski said he has asked New York State United Teachers lawyers to research the issue and consider filing an amicus brief for the appeal. In addition, NYSUT's Legislative Department has been meeting with Rochester-area state lawmakers to seek alternative sources of funding. NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin said the standoff shows how important it is for the state Legislature to pass a union-backed bill mandating a school nurse in every building. "This fight to save our school nurses has dramatically shown just how desperately needed they are," Urbanski noted. A union fact sheet reported school nurses kept medical alert plans for 9,425 students last year detailing severe allergies, chronic illness and other special health needs. Nurses dispensed 104,159 doses of medicine, including life-saving steroids for several hundred children who use nebulizers for severe asthma. Dozens require catheterization on a daily basis. Eleven percent of the incoming kindergartners have health problems requiring ongoing medical supervision. And parents of 20 percent of the incoming kindergartners reported their child had never seen a dentist. Last year, through on-site triage, nurses enabled students requiring medical treatment to return to class 81 percent of the time, rather than leave school for treatment. - Sylvia Saunders |
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