By Jerry Shottenkirk
The Journal Record 

NORMAN – Beginning next year, the Norman Regional Health System is going to do its part to ensure the health of students in the Norman Public Schools System. 

The program, which will be done in collaboration between the hospital and the school system, will give each Norman school a health care professional on staff. Currently there are two registered nurses and two health assistants serving the entire school district.

“Our board has a 25-year community health master plan and we want to do everything possible with other community organizations to make Norman one of the healthiest cities in the U.S.,” said David Whitaker, president and chief executive officer of Norman Regional Health System. “We need to get started on youth. We thought of the potential working with the public schools. Six months ago we got with school representatives and kicked around some ideas about health services.”

The Norman Public Schools System will put up $125,000 to start, and Norman Regional will forward $361,000 to help cover the costs of the additional personnel.

“Over the next five years it will build up into a 50-50 arrangement,” Whitaker said. “The total for the first year is about $480,000. The costs will get bigger with salary increases.”

Norman Superintendent Joseph Siano said the improvement of health has been a district goal.

“There are so many variables to student learning,” Siano said. “They have to come to school prepared and healthy; when they don’t, it impacts their learning. We will now be able to help and monitor all children’s health in our school district.”

Whitaker said the professionals will be school employees but the hospital system will help finance them. “There will be at least three registered nurses, five licensed practical nurses and 13 health care assistants,” Whitaker said.

Under the plan, the school district will have a registered nurse in both high schools, a licensed practical nurse in each of the four middle schools and at one elementary school for multi-handicapped children, and health assistants in 15 other elementary schools.

Sharon Howard, the school district’s health services coordinator, is one of the registered nurses already on staff.

“We are in the business of educating children, and I highly believe that kids have to be healthy for optimal learning,” Howard said. “This is definitely another great way for Norman Regional to give back to the community, by supporting the health of our children.”

Whitaker said he believes the program is the first of its kind.

“We just assumed there would be other community models when we had our first conversations,” Whitaker said. “We thought, ‘Why reinvent the wheel?’. But through our research with the American Hospital Association and other organizations, we couldn’t find a model.”