Two nursing positions added for the pandemic in Lowndes County School District will be rolling off for the upcoming school year.
LCSD Superintendent Sam Allison said the two positions, licensed practical nurses, were added to help registered nurses at the New Hope and Caledonia campuses and were paid from Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds. Two registered nurses were also added during the pandemic, and the district is retaining those positions.
Keeping the RNs instead of the LPNs simply came down to the RNs being hired first, Allison told The Dispatch.
“We don’t want to know what we’d do without (school nurses),” Allison said. “You’re just one emergency away, and we’re fortunate to have the ones we have. We have great people in these positions who treat their jobs seriously and are willing to do whatever they need.”
Still, schools aren’t required to have them at all. The Mississippi Department of Education only recommends a nurse per every 750 students. Moreover, funding for their salaries comes directly from the districts, either through federal Title I or local ad valorem, rather than through Mississippi Adequate Education Program money.
School nurses must be state-licensed registered nurses, and they provide more than ice packs and Band-aids, said district nurse for Columbus Municipal School District Jennifer Hartness. Any LPNs on the payroll must work under RN supervision.
Nurses teach some health classes, make doctor referrals, create health plans with parents and doctors, train staff to recognize medical emergencies and more.
“The National Association for School Nurses’ statement says that school nurses promote the health, well-being, academic achievement and success of school-aged students,” Hartness said. “… Unfortunately we can’t be in the classroom with these students, so it’s very important that the teachers recognize, for instance when a diabetic student has low blood sugar. … That teacher needs to recognize when that student needs care to send them to the nurse. So there’s lots and lots of training there.”
School nurses must stay up-to-date with legislation that impacts their jobs, such as a new law that allows for religious exemption of vaccines.
Caledonia Middle School nurse Katie Elliott said there also is a law stating nurses must make two attempts to get an asthma attack action plan from a child’s doctor, and one that allows schools to stock epi-pens for students and staff with allergic reactions.
Staffing and salaries
MDE’s recommended, but non-binding, salary schedule for nurses follows the teacher salary scale, adjusted for nursing degrees, MDE Chief of Communication Jean Cook told The Dispatch in an email.
Hartness said an RN must pass state board exams after acquiring an associate or bachelor’s degree. Earning a master’s degree would make them nurse practitioners.
A Columbus Municipal School District nurse’s salary ranges from $37,500 to $56,250 depending on experience, Public Information Officer Mary Pollitz said.
CMSD has nine total nurses — one nurse per school and a district nurse, who oversees nurses’ operations and serves as a liaison to the administrators. For the 2022-23 school year, CMSD budgeted $438,718 for its nurses. It did not add any nurses during the peak pandemic school years.
LCSD nurses begin at $34,363 with no experience to $57,585 with 30 years of experience.
Allison said the current salary and benefits for the 10 nurses in the district for the 2022-23 school year total $508,354, with a combination of district, Title I and ESSER funds.
Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District has eight district nurses — one at each school and one “floating” nurse, Assistant Superintendent Anna Guntharp told The Dispatch in an email.
“An additional nurse was added during COVID to ‘float’ and serve students at Emerson Family School,” Guntharp said. “… The final decision has not been made regarding the floating nurse position for the upcoming year. The floating nurse position was funded with ESSER funds. All other school nurse funding will be supported through district funds following the (20)23-24 school year.”
SOCSD did not say how much was budgeted for this school year for nurses, but Guntharp said the salary schedule is consistent with that of licensed teachers.
RNs in the private health sector make an average of $63,000 annually in Mississippi, compared to a national average of more than $80,000.
“I love kids, and I’ve always loved kids,” Hartness said. “I worked in labor and delivery and nursery before I came here, and I love the schedule of a school nurse. It’s kind of what drew me to it initially. I didn’t realize quite how much I would actually love what I do. I’ve always been an advocate, and there is so much advocating for these kids in this role, so that’s one of the things that energizes me the most here.”
LPN’s role
April Junkin is the LPN at Caledonia Elementary, one of the positions LCSD is cutting at the school year’s end. She has been assisting RN Casey Clark with day-to-day operations as a district LPN including seeing students for needs like administering medications and keeping up with charts.
“We give morning medications … then my room is always subject to anyone who is sick that needs to be picked up or taken to isolation,” Junkin said. “I also have the lower grades (pre-kindergarten through second grade) that I triage and verify if they’re actually truly sick or if they need to go home, if they have an issue that needs to be seen by a doctor, if they could possibly have a break. … It’s probably my favorite job I’ve ever had. I’ve already been told I won’t have employment (in the district) as a nurse. I’m a little heartbroken, but I knew coming in that was a great possibility.”
Clark said the addition of Junkin has been helpful. After Junkin is gone, Clark will return to bringing in the middle school and high school nurses to help with day-to-day operations as the elementary school has a student population of roughly 1,100 — which is about double the population of each of the other two Caledonia schools.
“Having her here, having that other person just took a huge load off me,” Clark said. “Just to have her experience and knowing I can rely on that, I’ll miss that a lot. … Without an LPN it was very busy. Now we do have the other (RNs) on campus, but (before LPNs were added) I did have the nurse at the middle school to help me if I got into a bad situation.”
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