Brookfield Local School District is out of space, nixing Supt. Toby Gibson’s wish to be able to provide medical services in the school.
However, he hopes a federal grant the school board approved in November will allow the school to offer telehealth services from the school.
Brookfield and West Branch Local School District, east of Alliance, have been awarded a $760,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service.
“Here’s an opportunity to circumvent space issues and provide services,” Gibson said Dec. 19.
With its share of the money, Brookfield will buy mobile medical carts with stethoscopes and other equipment the school nurse will use to evaluate a patient, and then relay the information to a doctor connected remotely, Gibson said.
Grant money also will be used to buy interactive Promethean boards for use in the high school, distance learning cameras and sound system updates, he said.
There will be an opportunity for students to remotely attend lessons from other schools and universities, and go on virtual field trips, Gibson said. Brookfield and West Branch could offer each other programs that the other school lacks, he said.
The grant is by far the most involved from an administrative standpoint that Gibson has ever attempted, and it is going to take the assistance of an attorney to get the details worked out, he said.
“I’m hoping by April we’ll be taking some things out of boxes,” he said.
Brookfield will have to provide a match of about $130,000, he said.
