PVUSD Nurses: “Our Ability to Protect Students and Staff is Severely Hampered"

*** Author’s note: Since the Board of Trustees refuses to televise their school board meeting publicly, I sincerely ask you to pass this article far and wide. Community members must know the danger our children are in due to severely underfunded school medical services.


PVUSD Nurses Officially Tell Board of Trustees, “Our Ability to Protect Students and Staff is Severely Hampered”

At the August 25, 2010 Pajaro Valley Unifed School District Board of Trustees meeting, district nurses used their allotted time during open comment to make an organized, collective presentation to the school board and community regarding the imminent safety of PVUSD staff and students.

There were about ten community members present along with reporters from the Santa Cruz Sentinel and the Register Pajaronian. The meeting was not televised, as none of the PVUSD Board of Trustee meetings are televised. The only published record of the following information will be in the meeting minutes, buried in the PVUSD website.

“School Nursing Services in Hard Times” was presented as a powerpoint presentation. School nurses Kathleen Kilpatrick, Elizabeth Thorne and Judy Schwartze shared shocking and important information about the state of School Medical services in PVUSD.

The major points presented to the Board and district administrators:
• Average caseload for senior nurses is 5,000 students and ten school sites.
• The district’s ability to protect the students and staff is severely hampered.
• Current assignments are unsafe and put students at risk.
• Caseloads are already above state and national averages.
• Nurses in PVUSD also manage Special Ed students in all levels of acuity.
• No subs are available for school nurses. If the nurse is out there is no one.
• ALL nurses work outside contract hours.

The nurses filed an “Assignment Despite Objection” complaint officially with the district. They are DEMANDING A WRITTEN RESPONSE from the Board of Trustees, and a meeting with Human Resources to discuss solutions to this problem. One solution they propose is to recruit retired school nurses in January to offset some of the workload currently being faced by school nursing staffs.

The school board had absolutely no comment or questions for the nurses or their important report. The Board of Trustees proceeded to discuss the next agenda item: “Expulsions and Suspension Policies” for the next hour.

What is more important to students safety and well being- adequate medical care and services for everyone or ensuring that the minority of the district’s “worst” children (who can probably be counted on two hands) are expelled and thrown out of the district, never to return? Ummmmmm…..what is the priority in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District and WHO does the power structure ultimately serve?

Please call or e-mail the PVUSD Board of Trustees and ask them to respond to the nurses in writing and to ensure that the PVUSD Human Resources staff meets with the nurses about this issue. Their contact information can be found at: http://www.pvusd.net.