Winooski School-Based Health Center to expand

The entry of the SBHC; the SBHs location in the Main Lobby of the district across from the Grab and Go Cafe and Necessities Store and the Multicultural Liaisons; Office

The entry of the SBHC; the SBHs location in the Main Lobby of the district across from the Grab and Go Cafe and Necessities Store and the Multicultural Liaisons; Office

The detailed renderings inside the SBHC show what a typical consultation and treatment room will look like.

The detailed renderings inside the SBHC show what a typical consultation and treatment room will look like.

The layout of the School-Based Health Center.

The SBHC also includes room to provide dental care.

Construction will soon start on a school health clinic in Winooski that would heavily expand the clinic and include a dental suite.

Vermont’s congressional delegation has pushed for $614,000 in federal funding in a coming federal spending bill. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) touted the addition of dental care capacity in the clinic.

“This funding will expand the successful Winooski School District’s School-Based Health Center to serve even more students and include a dental suite. This project will ensure more young people have access to health care without missing classes and without their parents missing work,” Sanders wrote in a note to the Senate Appropriations Committee this summer.

The money would come from the FY2022 appropriations bill.

The center is the brainchild of Winooski school nurse Liz Parris, who started the program in September of 2017. It took a school year of planning, community engagement, and grant funding before the health center opened up.

She noticed many barriers kids had to face when seeking healthcare. Even before the pandemic problems were added to the mix, kids in need of healthcare would have to lose significant class time in order to get it.

“Kids were leaving school for medical appointments and then not coming back,” Parris said.

The center as it stands now has been offering services for kids and their families through the pandemic. Right now these focus on testing.

“Our providers who are here three days a week are working with the families to COVID test them (the kids) here on-site,” Parris said. “We are getting rid of the middle man.”

Dr. Sherry Larose, a provider from CHCB (Community Health Centers of Burlington) who works at the Winooski center once a week, said COVID testing is more efficient in school.

“I just came back from maternity leave and today was my first day able to do COVID testing. I was there for a little over an hour and I was able to test four kids that maybe wouldn’t have been able to get the testing so quickly,” Larose said.

The services provided increase accessibility for non-English speaking families who would otherwise struggle to find health care outside the school system, Larose said.

The expansion promises a new, more spacious extension with a dental suite. Construction will start within the coming months, said Emily Hecker, communications director for the Winooski School District.

Those working at the center hope for a future in which there is a provider on-site every day rather than the current three times a week. They also will need a dental health provider to work on-site once the installation opens, Larose and Parris said.

Larose said she was happy that she can personally facilitate primary care for kids that need it. She also said that with the expansion, there is a possibility for the center in the school to provide primary care for students.

The managers of this center hope to open up the new and improved health center expansion to the public of Winooski, Hecker said.