WISD Health Services Department Receives Grant
For the fifth year, Tri-County Health Alliance (Tri-County) has supported the Waller ISD (WISD) Health Services Department with a financial donation. Tri-County is one of the district’s largest non-profit supporters. Since 2016, Tri-County has presented the WISD Health Services team with grants to purchase supplies and equipment for campus clinics. This year, Tri-County Executive Director Ann Marie Paradowski and Board Member Patsy Marburger presented the department with a donation of $27,818. To date, Tri-County has donated $85,585 to WISD Health Services.
“They have been very good to us over the years,” WISD Administrative Nurse Liaison Shelly Shultz said. “We have been able to get a lot of equipment and supplies that we would probably never be able to buy.”
The partnership began when Marburger approached Shultz about the organization’s grant program. Each year Shultz works with campus nurses to compile a list of items each campus clinic needs. Shultz begins working on the grant proposal at the beginning of September to submit to the Tri-County Board by the first week of November. With each donation, each campus clinic has been able to purchase supplies needed for the year.
“It’s very time-consuming but completely worth it to know that we have enough supplies to take care of students and their needs,” Shultz said.
A large portion of this year’s donation will be used to purchase a Spot Vision Screener. This will be the third screener Tri-County has purchased for the district. The screener is used to quickly & easily detect six common vision problems in seconds from a three-foot distance. This allows the Health staff to run vision tests on students who are five and under, nonverbal, or have special needs. As a special holiday surprise, Paradowski gifted the department an unused screener from another school district that is valued at $7,600.
The WISD Health Services team is made up of eight staff members: Shultz, Samantha Dempsey, Felecia Houser, Melissa Jones, Lisa Matson, Trina Moore, Courtney Pinilla, and Lillian Werner. They see to the health and safety of over 7,700 students in the district daily. Thank you to the WISD Health Services team and Tri-County for their #WISDgreatness!