Schools Seek Fund-Raiser to Cure Clinics’ Ills

Concerned that student health clinics may run out of money next year, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Trustees on Monday agreed to hire a full-time fund-raiser to begin soliciting financial support immediately.

The district, which must make $88 million in budget cuts by June 30, demonstrated its commitment to maintaining the clinics by advancing $66,000 for the position.

Officials hope the fund-raiser can bring in enough money to pay back the loan and continue operating its three clinics, annual costs for which run from $230,000 to $240,000 each. While half the total comes from a New Jersey philanthropic organization, the balance is made up of smaller grants which have dried up in recent years.

“Given the budget cuts we have, we can’t afford to keep them open; if we don’t make it in a year, these clinics will close,” said school board member Roberta Weintraub.

The district opened its first two student health clinics in 1987 at Jordan High School in Watts and San Fernando High School in the northeastern San Fernando Valley community. A third opened the next year at Los Angeles High School in the Crenshaw area.

The clinics initially stirred community protests, particularly at San Fernando High, because in addition to treating common ailments such as earaches and colds, they dispensed contraceptives and offered birth-control counseling. Students are required to obtain signed consent forms from their parents before visiting the clinics. But now, opposition has died down and student use has grown rapidly.

District officials, who opened the clinics with much fanfare, had hoped to duplicate their success at other campuses but were stymied by lack of funds. On Monday, school board members reiterated that hope, saying that an aggressive fund-raiser might rally enough money from public and private sources to finally open health clinics at other schools. The district has also formed a nonprofit corporation to support the clinics.

The need for health care in city schools was underscored late last year when a report from the Los Angeles County Health Department found large numbers of poor, sick students falling through the cracks of a district health care system that is outdated and unable to care for them.

Even private nonprofit groups that traditionally have helped bring health care to poor students have suffered from funding cuts. For instance, the Parent-Teacher Assn., which operates nine dental clinics in areas served by Los Angeles Unified, says it has been forced to drastically curtail operating hours.

A PTA-funded dental clinic in Gardena has closed for lack of funds, the Venice clinic is open only one day out of five and the Boyle Heights clinic has cut back one of its two dentists.

“Some of our patients . . . as young as 6 years old . . . have had to have all their teeth extracted, with false teeth put in their place,” said Lynne Calkins, spokeswoman for the PTA group that covers the Los Angeles Basin.

Calkins said PTA clinics served about 17,000 students last year and that demand is already up this year.

The district has also seen an influx of desperately ill students who arrive in class too sick to learn. Increasingly, doctors say they are seeing ailments from tuberculosis to internal parasites to severe psychological problems.

Medical professionals at the three clinics report being flooded with requests for treatment, including calls from teachers and students at other schools.