Four schools in Floyd County may soon be the only schools in the state to be part of a new pilot research program dealing with Type 1 diabetes.

Christy Nash, who is an off-campus assistant professor of pharmacy practice for Purdue University, talked to the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. board Monday night about her proposed program whose goal is to foster an environment of tighter disease control for students with diabetes.

Nash said the problem lies in having few school nurses to help children with diabetes, a lack of confidence of parents in the school’s ability to help their child and children having to leave the classroom frequently due to poor disease control.

She said the solution is teaching those who are with the child during the day — such as teachers, coaches and cafeteria monitors — how to help manage the disease.

Andrea Tanner is one of four school nurses for NA-FC. She said she covers five schools and has 24 children with diabetes. She said due to the different locations, she has to rely on other school employees to make sure children have their insulin shots.

She met Nash last fall and the two talked about the need for a training and education program here and that’s where the idea was born. If started, it would be implemented at four of the schools that Nash works in, including Floyd Central High School, Highland Hills Middle School as well as two elementary schools.

“I think a lot of teachers are scared of [diabetes],” Nash said. “I think they want this.”

She said the hope would be to educate school personnel on a volunteer basis, with teachers possibly earning continuing education credits. She said she is seeking a grant to pay for the program. However, if that falls through, she said she would find a way to fund this on her own.

The board questioned the liability of teachers as well as the cost associated with training them, since they will be away from the classroom during the school day.

Tanner said as long as teachers are doing what they were taught, they wouldn’t be liable should something go wrong. She said what they would be taught would be how to better identify children having issues with either low or high blood sugar.

Tanner said training could also be done during planning periods, like other health training sessions.

Teresa Perkins, assistant to the superintendent for curriculum and instruction, told the board to send her any more questions they have and she will work with Nash and Tanner to come up with answers. She said she hopes to have the plan prepared for the board to vote on it by its Sept. 14 meeting.



PAYING FOR NAMESAKE

Lee Ann Wiseheart, board vice president, asked the board to consider allowing people and/or companies to pay to name a facility after themselves for a given amount of time.

Brad Snyder, deputy superintendent, said Nobelsville High School did just that with their football field, leasing out the name to a business for about $50,000 for a few years.

The board asked Bill Briscoe, assistant to the superintendent for administration and operations, to look into whether the board already has a policy in place so that they can discuss this issue further at a future meeting.