REPLACEMENT OF RN'S WITH LVN'S:
Admittedly, I know next to nothing about the nursing profession.
What I do know is that an RN is more educated regarding nursing than an LVN.
In 1991 during the year after I lost to Garry Weiss in a run-off election, the superintendent, Hugh Hayes, decided to replace the RN's that had traditionally staffed our KISD schools with LVN's. He also wanted a nurse to "share duties" at Mayde Creek High School with Mayde Creek Junior High.
Parents whose children needed the services of an RN during the school day (ostensibly for administering various medical procedures or medication) were terribly upset by the intended move. Parents of the Mayde Creek area were concerned about the distance between those two schools and the resulting problem of accessibility for their children to a nurse in an emergency.
It was obvious to me that the proposed measure was a cost cutting move with no regard for what the change might mean for some of the students.
In letters to the editor, I challenged the effort and was successful in getting the measure at least postponed. After I was elected the next year, I continued to object to the change. The Mayde Creek schools never had to share a nurse.
Eventually the RN's in KISD were replaced with LVN's, I am told that there was no cost savings in making the switch.
In checking the rosters at several schools, it appears that the District has come to it's senses and has returned to their previous practice of hiring RN's to staff the schools with the exception of hiring LVN's when no RN can be found to hire. They could have saved themselves a lot of trouble if they had listened to me in the first place.
It is of note that KISD has participated in a lawsuit regarding one of the LVN's that it hired: