Besides students, medical services also will be provided to student families and school staffers. Students in other Middletown schools will be transported as needed to the clinic.
A healthy student is a better performing student, said Middletown Schools Superintendent Marlon Styles Jr.
“Health care and lifelong healthy habits is part of our vision in Middletown Schools and this is our community’s investment in our students,” said Styles.
“This is about students being able to access learning. They might have a toothache or not able to see the board or you might have some difficulty with hearing or be dealing some other health issues,” he said.
The center’s public unveiling included short speeches by city school officials and leaders from the health care provider partners that helped create the $2 million medical facility, which cost Middletown Schools $400,000.
Middletown is the third school system in Butler County to open an on-campus medical center in the past two years — all with the help of Primary Health Solutions and various local health care providers.
Medical care partners in the clinic include Kettering Health Network, Deaconess Associations Foundation, One Sight and Interact For Health.
Fairfield Schools opened its clinic in 2016 and Hamilton Schools opened its clinic last year.
Both Fairfield and Hamilton school officials have touted their on-campus clinics as significant assets in the overall improvement of student and staff health during the school year.
“We are investing in young people and this (center) will help young people succeed,” Chris Urso, president of the Middletown Board of Education, said.
Urso said the timely transportation of ill students from Middletown’s other schools to the clinic is a vital component of the new operation.
“This is a huge investment in our kids and accessibility is key,” he said.
In September, Middletown School officials opened a new middle school adjacent to the high school as part of a $96 million construction project that is the largest in the city schools’ history.
The district has transformed its dated high school campus — expanding and renovating the high school and adding the medical center’s facility with main-door access behind the school and also making it accessible from within the high school.
“This is our district’s and our community’s way of stepping up to the plate to make sure our students can come to school consistently and be healthy while they are here,” said Styles.
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