NHC to cut back on school nurses

The New Hanover County school system is trying to figure out how to cut their budget. One idea is to reduce the hours, and numbers, of school nurses.

Right now, the New Hanover County school system employs 36 school nurses. Some nurses who currently work full-time may have their hours cut once the new budget is approved.

Another cost-reducing idea is having schools that are close together share nurses. None of the plans are sure things, but the budget will be trimmed.

“We’re trying to adjust at their request to the amount of money that they think that they can give us at this point, which is not finalized so we’re working on a plan on our end, essentially crunching numbers trying to make sure that we can cover all the schools with nursing services to the best that we can,” said Janet McCumbee, the NHC public health division manager.

One thing’s for sure according to Janet McCumbee, New Hanover County will be providing less nursing coverage for the next school year than the current school year. At this point, she just doesn’t know how much less it will be.