Polk County Schools, Blue Ridge partner to build new school health center

COLUMBUS — Thanks a newly formed partnership between Polk County Schools and Blue Ridge Health, local students will soon be able to receive affordable behavioral health care, right on school grounds.

The Polk County Schools Board of Education unanimously consented to a plan earlier this week that will allow the administration to work with the area health services provider to develop a student health center inside Polk County Middle School. The facility — which will service students from all schools in the county — will be located in the current in-school suspension area at the middle school, and is targeted to be open by January, said Superintendent Aaron Greene.

The center — which is being funded by the Turner-Tennant Foundation — will work in tandem with the school nurse, and will be open during school hours, with the potential for evening appointments. The school plans to initially offer behavioral health care services at the center, with plans to expand into other treatment options after opening.

“The center will serve a layer of student who is not being served with our billable-hours structure of behavioral health services in our country, which is not working very well, if you haven’t noticed,” Greene said during his presentation to the board. “This helps that gap of students we are not serving very well, which I’m excited about.”

The administration has explored the possibility of opening a student health center for nearly 15 years, Greene said. Blue Ridge Health —a Federally Qualified Health Center that operates 17 locations throughout western North Carolina, including one in Columbus — was a natural partner for Polk County Schools, as the nonprofit has worked with several Henderson County schools on similar student health centers over the past 25 years, the superintendent said.

Polk County Middle School is an ideal place to open the center, as it not only provides a good space for the facility, but is also located next to the Polk County Social Services Department building, Greene said.

“Middle school is also an age where kids maybe start to need some behavioral health intervention,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity to get on the front end of things before they develop patterns going into high school.”

The school will need to do some modifications to the ISS area to retrofit it for the health center, including placing new walls to section off exam and consultation rooms, the intake area, and other spaces.

The center will charge parents for their child’s care based on where the family fits on the federal poverty guidelines scale. Families that are at the 100-percent poverty level will not be charged for their child’s care, said Blue Ridge Health Chief Operating Officer Tammy Greenwell, who attended this week’s board meeting.

“We just didn’t want that to be another barrier to someone getting care,” Greenwell said.

The center will not just service students, but will also be available to faculty and their families, she said.

Greenwell, whose own children attend Polk County Schools, said she is excited that Blue Ridge is partnering with the school administration for the project.

“I just want to commend you,” said school board member Rhonda Corley. “As an old educator, this is what we dreamed of — this kind of community collaboration — for years. To be actually moving forward is terrific.”