City prods legislators to cure a shortage

At the mayor's urging, Largo commissioners ask lawmakers to put a nurse in every public school. That's a $58-million idea, but one that the state education chief likes.

By ERIC STIRGUS

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 8, 2001

LARGO -- It was another topsy-turvy morning for Eleanor Davis.

There was the little boy in her office with strep throat. Another boy with diabetes was testing his blood sugar. And there was the girl outside her door who wet her pants.

"The minute I get here, it's pretty non-stop," said Davis, 40, who works full time as a nurse at Walsingham Elementary School.

Davis is a rarity in Pinellas County. Of the 143 public schools in Pinellas County, only 28 have registered nurses who work from the time the first school bus arrives in the morning until the last child is picked up in the afternoon.

Mayor Bob Jackson would like to see that changed. On Tuesday, at the mayor's urging, Largo city commissioners passed a resolution asking state lawmakers to put a registered nurse in every public school.

"There are not enough nurses in the county to serve the schools," said Jackson, a former Pinellas schools administrator and principal.

Florence Deaner couldn't agree more. "A nurse in every school, that would be a dream for us," said the former president of the Florida Association of School Nurses.

Getting more nurses in schools is important because teachers, lunchroom helpers and administrators often don't recognize when a child is ill, school officials say. The nurses also could encourage students to eat better.

"I think it's needed," said Davis. "There's a lot of things we can do to help kids."

Jackson's idea -- far from new -- would be a costly one. The Pinellas County School Board currently spends about $35,000 a year per nurse. Most nurses now work with special-needs students.

It would cost about $5-million to place a registered nurse in every Pinellas school. Figures on what the School Board spends today were unavailable. It would cost $58-million to put a nurse in every school statewide, according to state Health Department officials.

State Education Commissioner Charlie Crist said he was hoping to come up with the additional money through President Bush's education proposal that would reward states with innovative ideas.

"I'm very optimistic about it," Crist said Wednesday. "I think (more nurses) is critical to improving the education of our young people. They are so woven together, in my view, that I think we should do what we can to provide that."

Jackson was surprised to learn that there were not more nurses in Florida's schools when he moved from New Hampshire 33 years ago. In that state, the mayor said, nurses were considered such a priority that in some cases they were hired before a principal was retained by a school.

"They were social workers. They visited the homes. They did everything," Jackson said. Jackson sought the resolution after receiving a letter in December from a group of nurses in Okaloosa County.

In recent years, proponents of more nurses in Florida's schools have conducted a multifaceted campaign to push their cause, which has included lobbying elected officials. Some North Florida counties also have found volunteers to work at schools and encouraged area businesses to donate money to pay for more nurses.

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