Cameron ISD discusses campus HealthPoint clinic on campus

Cameron ISD parents may soon have a new place to get medical care right in the school.

The CISD School Board heard a presentaiton from HealthPoint about providing a health clinic in Cameron ISD facilities during a meeting on Monday night.

The clinic will be for students and staff and will potentially be housed in Cameron Elementary.

“This is something that HealthPoint is doing in other districts,” CISD Superintendent Kevin Sprinkles said. “We have been discussing this for a few months and they are here to let you know what it is all about tonight.”

Jennifer Reynolds, Director of ISD Program for HealthPoint, and provider Karla Woods were on hand for the presentation and questions.

Reynolds said they already operate clinics in four school districts close to Cameron - Rockdale, Franklin and Caldwell. The HealthPoint home office is in College Station and they have a clinic in Rockdale.

Woods would be the support staff for Cameron ISD.

“Our program is one that sounds too good to be true, but it isn’t,” Reynolds said. “What we at HeathPoint want to do is provide access to care. That is the most important thing for us, keeping communities healthy.”

The program will place a telehealth clinic in the school that can provide care to students and staff.

An invoice will be sent to the patient, no money will be collected at the school.

“A lot of kids go without access to care because a lot of parents don’t know how to go about gettting care,” she said. “We want to be that point of access.”

HealthPoint will provide all of the equipment and a medical assistant on site for the clinic, all the school district needs to provide is space for the clinic.

Students will be handed off to the clinic by the school nurse and then parents will be contacted for a telehealth visit. The clinic will have all capabilities that a doctor’s office has including scopes, stethescopes as well as testing and labs.

Reynolds said the onsite clinic gives parents the opportunity to have their children taken care of without having to take them out of school and go to Temple or College Station for care and then come back, so they are not missing hours of school.

The board did not make a decision on the parternship, but will decide on the program at an upcoming meeting. The clinic will be in place for the next school year if they board approves. 

During the meeting the board also honored YHS Band member Zachary Frausto for his All-State Band selection.

During Superintendent’s Reports Sprinkles told the board he is looking for used vehicles for use by the district’s School Resource Deputies and discussed purchasing a new band trailer and refitting the district’s weight rooms as well as fixing the scoreboard at The Yards.

In other business the board discussed: the purchase of two suburbans for the district’s white fleet; the replacement of the HVAC system at Ben Milam; purchasing vape detectors for secondary campuses; construction of a metal building for operations storage; asbestos abatement for the Old Yoe High; the 2023-24 school calendar; and accepted unopposed candidates for the May 6 election and cancelled the election.