At the onset of the pandemic, officials in the Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 did something that turned out to be a great use of money: They hired a full-time registered nurse for all nine of our schools. Larger schools like mine—a middle school with 1,100 students—also have a certified nurse assistant.
Before COVID-19, a nurse supported our school, Fountain Middle School, along with three elementary schools, which together serve about 3,000 students. With her on site every day now, we can be really targeted in our approach to managing the pandemic. One of the biggest advantages is that she can perform onsite rapid COVID testing not only for students, but also for staff and families. And the result has been that our students have missed a lot fewer days of in-person school by having to quarantine at home.
