AISD board of trustees honors students, implements new safety policies
The Amarillo Independent School District (AISD) highlighted and covered several topics in its Monday evening board of trustees meeting. During the meeting, board members recognized outstanding students, approved trained administration of unassigned preventative medication districtwide, and approved the selection of a contractor for the high school and middle school gymnasium HVAC project.
The AISD board recognized Regional Spelling Bee winner Jayden Zheng from Bonham Middle School. It was said during the meeting that Zheng will soon go on to the National Spelling Bee competition, to be held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Fort Washington, Maryland, May 30 through June 1.
In addition to honoring Zheng, the AISD board recognized the district's six National Merit Scholarship Program finalists including Michael Carathers, Lily Sobey, and Jeffery Zheng from Amarillo High School; Christopher Castaneda from Caprock High School; and William Ellis and Elijah Hamilton from Tascosa High School.
In addition to honoring the scholars, AISD accepted a rebate check totaling to $14,987. According to the district, they have been working with Region 16 Education Service Center's purchasing cooperative, TexBuy, since October 2010, and over that 13-year time span, AISD has been rebated a total of $147,398.32.
The AISD board also approved a revised version of Board Policy FFAC (LOCAL) Wellness and Health Services Medical Treatment, authorizing trained school personnel to administer an unassigned epinephrine auto-injector when the trained authorized individual reasonably believes a person is experiencing anaphylaxis. This revised policy also allows district registered nurses to administer unassigned prescription asthma medication to a student experiencing asthma symptoms and will include providing district facilities with opioid antagonist medications to assist individuals experiencing a possible opioid related drug overdose.
This new policy requires the district purchase epinephrine auto-injectors and a metered dose of albuterol inhalers for each campus and district facility. These purchases are estimated to cost an initial $60,000.
AISD Superintendent Doug Loomis spoke about this being a benefit to the district in the case of an emergency, but where the district faces challenges is storing the items in a secure location where trained personnel would have access to in the case of an emergency.
"There are some operations and some procedures that we are going to have to develop before we can actually put this into play. There will likely have to be some storage units that we will have to bring back that we will have to purchase that are alarmed and keyed. If you think about fire extinguishers, they were always behind glass to get to them, a modern version of that, but it would also need to be a place that every teacher would have a key to or access," Loomis said.
According to the board, the district is currently in collaboration with a local physician to obtain an unassigned delegation order allowing the registered individuals access to the medication.
This change of policy was developed with input from district administration, the Director of Student Health and school nurses at all campus levels.
AISD board of Trustees approved AMA Pro Air to add air-conditioning to the HVAC units in the Tascosa High School Old Main Gym; Palo Duro High School Old Main Gym and Auxiliary Gym; and middle school gymnasiums, including Austin, Bowie, Bonham, Crockett, Fannin, Houston, Mann and Travis.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: AISD board honors students, implements new safety policies
