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Cass City School renovations for a medical clinic are progressing
Mary Drier/Mike Kaufman
Wed, 24 Jul 2024 21:57:15 EDT
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Construction of a medical clinic on the Cass City School District's grounds is well underway. Booms Construction's bid of $140,600 to do the work was accepted, Thumb Cooling and Heating's bid of $141,562 was accepted, and Mauer Electric's bid of $34,162 was approved.
The initial plan was to hire a nurse-practitioner to run the clinic. However, that option didn't work out so the back up plan is to hire a school nurse to operate the clinic, which will be under the direction of a doctor using the tela-health program. Hopes were to have the work done before the 2024-2025 school year started, but that seems unlikely so it looks like the work could be done shortly thereafter.
Several options were explored on how the clinic should be developed, build a stand-alone structure, purchasing a portable unit, or to do a remodel of a current facility. After studying the options, it was decided to remodel a classroom in the elementary building for the clinic.
To get the clinic underway, the district received a $250,000 construction grant from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). Of that funding, $75,000 will be used for the planning for the clinic. About $25,000 will be used for construction renovations, and about $75,000 of the grant money will be spent on the clinic.
The Cass City District was among 26 schools in 2023 the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) awarded $2.4 million in funding to develop a health-service program to expand the Child and Adolescent Health Centers (CAHC) to additional sites across the state. The district was awarded a $250,000 construction grant from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for the health clinic. The district also received $75,000 for the planning phase and $25,000 for the renovations.
Once the clinic is up and running it will be available to any student in the district between the ages of five and 26 years old. The focus of the health-care program is to remove barriers so schools can offer health care services to district students who do not have access to health care. Some of the health care services the program will provide are wellness checks, immunizations, and more.
Cass City was the only school in the Thumb to successfully write a grant for the health program.
