School Board approves extended health services

The St. Mary School Board voted Thursday to allow Teche Action Clinic to offer medical and behavioral health services at more schools, work that will continue even though schools have been closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Teche Action Clinic, a St. Mary-based nonprofit that offers health care to low-income people in this region, has a mobile health unit and has operated school-based clinic at West St. Mary High and Boudreaux Middle for 11 years and at Raintree Elementary for two years.
The clinic’s services will now include its Wellness Check program for families served at Franklin High and Franklin Junior High; Hattie Watts Elementary, Patterson Junior High and Patterson High; and J.S. Aucoin Elementary in Amelia.
Teche Action Clinic CEO Gary Wiltz said the expansion follows through on plans made years ago by an advisory group on school health care.
He said the clinic will accept insurance from patients when it’s available but will provide free care when it’s not.
“No one is ever turned away [from] services for inability to pay,” Wiltz said.
The clinic is also calling families that may be in need of services.
That raised privacy concerns for board member Roland Verret. Wiltz responded that the clinic is accustomed to following the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy restrictions.
The mobile health unit is parked at school campuses and does not require access through the office.
School Board member Dwight Barbier, who represents a Morgan City district, asked why Morgan City schools aren’t being offered the services.
Wiltz pointed to the advisory group recommendation and said the clinic would be happy to offer services in Morgan City schools.
“The intent is to make the services available to everyone in the parish,” Wiltz said at one point.
The discussion led board member Ginger Griffin to ask why Teche Action Clinic was coming to the board.
“Is it to try to solicit patients for your clinics?” Griffin said. “I’m not sure what you need.”
“We’ve never solicited in our lives,” Wiltz said. “I take that as an insult.”
Wiltz said he was told by the superintendent and board legal counsel that he needed to come before the board with the proposal.
Later, Wiltz said he has made the same presentation several times over the years and has been rejected.
“I’ve made the same presentation five or six times and I get the same questions,” Wiltz said. “It’s disappointing.”
The board voted 8-3 in favor of the Teche Action Clinic plan. Joseph Foulcard, Sylvia Lockett, Kenneth Alfred, Pearl Rack, Wayne Deslatte, Alaina Black, Barbier and Verret voted yes. Griffin, Marilyn LaSalle and Michael Taylor voted no.
Also Thursday, Superintendent Teresa Bagwell said the district will receive $3 million in federal COVID-19-related funds to help ease the transition back to classes for students as schools reopen.
Planning for graduation continues, she said, and announcements will follow after Gov. John Bel Edwards decides whether to lift the stay at home order that is currently in effect until May 15. Edwards said he expects to make the announcement Monday.

This story has been edited to correct Dwight Barbier's name.

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