43
Students to get dental care
AUSTINTOWN
Health and hiring were highlighted during Tuesday night’s school-board meeting.
Elementary students will be able to get comprehensive dental care during school hours after the board of education approved a partnership with Humility of Mary Health Partners.
The Smile Station will be staffed by a team of dentists and hygienists and will travel to the district’s elementary schools beginning in February. Students will be able to receive a variety of dental services including exams, cleanings, fillings and extractions.
“It’s like a dental office on wheels,” said Frank Beck, program director of the General Practice Dental Residency Program at Humility of Mary Health Partners. He said children will have access to care whether they have insurance or not.
On hand at the meeting were drawings of the new mobile unit. It features two dental rooms and central waiting area and will be the second mobile dental van operated by Humility of Mary when it is delivered in December.
Vince Colaluca, district superintendent, said the district would open bidding for its own mobile medical unit Tuesday evening after the board approved the resolution.
The district received $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Affordable Care Act for health-care services earlier this year. The medical unit will house two exam rooms with X-ray capabilities and state-of-the-art equipment and will be available during home athletic games.
Bids for the construction of the district’s new kindergarten-though-second-grade and third-through-fifth-grade buildings will open in December, Colaluca said, after the board voted to allow the district to advertise and receive bids.
The board also announced its intent to hire Kate Gavalier and Jeffrey Swavel as assistant principals of the new buildings.
Gavalier is the district’s consultant from the Mahoning County Educational Service Center and will help lead the kindergarten-through-second-grade building. Swavel is a fourth-grade teacher at Frank Ohl Intermediate School and will work at the third-through-fifth-grade building.
The assistant principals will not receive an administration contract until Aug. 1, 2013. They will collaborate with the administrative team and staff on the planning of the new buildings throughout this school year with no compensation.