For lack of a nurse, school shuts for a day

Lake Roosevelt Schools took an unplanned day off Monday after the district learned on Friday it would not have a school nurse.

Superintendent Rod Broadnax said he learned as he was out of town Friday that the nurse who had been supplied to the schools for two days a week by the local hospital district would no longer be available.

Registered nurses are in short supply in Washington state, and Coulee Medical Center spends large sums to bring in temporary nurses, as do many, if not most, hospitals.

Broadnax said Monday night in a letter to parents that school would reopen Tuesday.

He’d made the call to cancel school Monday until a path to finding a new nurse was in place. He said LR has a large number of students with documented health plans who need medications that legally require an RN to dispense.

“Due to the limited time notice the district received from our local healthcare partner regarding the resignation of our school nurse, I made the decision to close school tomorrow,” Broadnax wrote in a letter to parents Sunday night after a shorter note had been sent out on Friday.

“I am not in the business of singling students out; therefore, rather than prohibiting students with documented healthcare issues only from attending school, I decided to extend the day off to all of our students and teaching staff,” he wrote.

By Monday night’s school board meeting, Broadnax told the boar he had an interview arranged for Wednesday with a possible new nurse. The school board voted to give him authority to hire someone if it worked out.

Broadnax said Tuesday at his “coffee with the superintendent” meeting at Voltage Coffee House that the situation was the most sensitive one he’s come across in his career.

School opened to all on Tuesday, although the health room was unavailable and the district would not be able to provide certain medications, a letter from Broadnax to district parents said Monday night.