TOPSHAM

Thanks to a one-time $10,000 contribution by the United Way of Mid Coast Maine, the School Administrative District 75 school board Thursday was able to extend the contract of a longtime school health coordinator to the end of the current school year.

The state eliminated funding for school health coordinators effective July 1, 2012, in order to find savings toward a nearly $83 million budget gap in the state Department of Health and Human Services budget.

That left some 30 school districts reeling to find a way to fund their school health coordinator positions, which in many cases had already been budgeted.

The SAD 75 school board was able to find funds for 8 months of the current school year to keep its school health coordinator, who has an annual salary of $46,895, from savings within its own budget and $10,000 from Mid Coast Hospital and $5,000 from Access Heath. The position in total costs the district about $75,000.

Superintendent Brad Smith told the board Thursday that Mary Booth, the district school health coordinator since 2001, learned funding for her position had been cut the same week she learned she had been selected as the national school health coordinator of the year.

The position had been cofunded by the state and school district.

“We immediately began looking for some community support,” Smith said. “Her contract would have expired long before the end of the year had some of our partners not come through.”

In addition to United Way Smith thanked Mid Coast Hospital and Access Health for their donations that have allowed the district to keep the position in the current school year.

“They have more than seen the value of having coordinated health services in the district and I really appreciate all of them,” Smith said.

Booth oversees the district’s school-based health center and neighboring school systems have recently turned to Booth for help in establishing a similar service. Part of Booth’s work going forward will be to look at offering a coordinated regional approach to school-based health services.

But that is just a piece of what Booth does.

“Students have multiple health issues; we all do,” Booth said during a phone interview Thursday. “We’re a whole person.” Whether looking at school environment, or school climate and the issue of bullying which impacts emotional health and physical safety; substance abuse prevention or nutrition and physical activity. “It all comes under that hat of health, so then if you have everyone in the community passionate about health wanting to come into the school to work, who coordinates those efforts so they are as integrated or as effective as possible?”

She also is the person who researches the latest data to guide the superintendent and district forward as it relates to health issues, and advocates for initiatives like the daily motor breaks for students because research shows the brain works better with physical activity.

“A lot of my work is knowing what the science is and really changing operations,” she said.

Over the last 10 years, Booth said the state has asked all school systems with school health coordinators to submit a portfolio looking at the different facets of health, “and SAD 75 was recognized as being exemplary in every area and we’re the only system in the state to have that level of distinction.”

“I think that’s the other reason why the Mid-coast region really values this work because we excel at it,” Booth said. “We know what we’re doing and we know we can make a difference for the students.”

She also works with community partners on health initiatives, including the United Way of Mid Coast Maine and its work with Adverse Childhood Experiences, which recognizes that a lot of negative childhood experiences make it difficult for students to learn when they are coming to school with emotional and behavioral health concerns. Some of the work she will be doing with United Way “is looking at what’s going on in the kindergarten population and then looking for trends; what do we see?”

Barbara Reinertsen, executive director of the United Way of Mid Coast Maine, said the organization is committed to long-term outcomes in education and health, as well as financial stability. Of SAD 75’s health coordinator program she said Thursday, “We’re excited about the kinds of things that their program has been doing and we’re excited to see if this regional approach and sharing resources could help all students in Bath, SAD 75 and Brunswick school systems.”

The SAD 75 school board Thursday unanimously voted to extend Booth’s contract from March 1 to June 30. How and if the school health coordinator position gets funded in the 2013-14 school year, Smith said Thursday night, will be part of the budget discussions already underway in the district. The district will again be looking at outside grants and donations to help offset the cost of the position.

dmoore@timesrecord.com