Lorain Schools to serve students in clever way

Lorain City Schools continues to come up with innovative methods to educate students and prepare them for life after leaving high school.

The latest and most clever tool the district will use was announced Sept. 14 during the Lorain Schools Board of Education meeting when members approved a plan for a food and medical road show for students and their families.

Lorain Schools will repurpose old school buses and ingeniously convert them into mobile kitchens and medical clinics.

That’s right, mobile kitchens to feed and medical clinics to treat people, on at least four wheels.

The district first will buy two used school buses to start a fleet of five.

Lorain Schools utilizing school buses that probably would have been summoned to a grave and possibly used for spare parts is a great way to keep them in service.

It’s more common to see school buses used for other reasons such as transporting students to and from school, transporting athletes, band members and coaches to and from sporting events, for field trips and for tourism.

Some companies and individuals will buy a fleet of used buses and convert them into refrigerated and utility vehicles, or even motorhomes or tiny houses.

Converted school buses also can be used for dining rooms, mobile classrooms, temporary offices, or even an art studio.

Lorain Schools Board of Education members Mark Ballard, Bill Sturgill, Yvonne Johnson, Courtney Nazario and Timothy Williams approved spending $9,900 for the buses.

And in November, Lorain Schools CEO/Superintendent Jeff Graham and his administration will request another three buses.

Graham told the board members that having the buses will allow Lorain Schools to provide better care for the families in the district and their children, and will separate those activities from the schools.

The first two buses will serve as a mobile kitchen and as a mobile Mercy Health Lorain Clinic.

Stephen Sturgill, executive director of the district’s Health and Family Services Engagement Center, said the additional buses later will become a mobile dental clinic, an eye clinic and another food truck.

Lorain Schools officials and staff looked at trucks for mobile services during Graham’s first stint as Lorain Schools superintendent, which was from August 2015 to December 2017.

But, Graham said the trucks can cost up to $500,000 in addition to maintenance costs, which obviously is not a financially prudent move.

Instead, Lorain-based Mobile Outreach Solutions will outfit the buses.

Buying the buses and converting to a health clinic, Graham said, is estimated to cost in the neighborhood of $150,000.

The school district will use money available from the Ohio Department of Education, which allocated funds through the U.S. Department of Education’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, program.

Lorain Schools also will work with Mercy Health Lorain and the hospital’s foundation to cover costs for the first health care bus.

As for the other bus, Graham said the plan is to feed children breakfast, lunch and dinner, especially in the summer.

Lorain Schools gets state money to reimburse costs of student breakfasts and lunches. But now, the district will have more capacity and will expand to getting dinners to the students.

Graham said feeding students is the only thing Lorain Schools can spend that money on.

Sturgill credited Mary Mayse, district executive director of operations, for her work inspecting buses to buy.

He displayed the layouts of the buses for Lorain Schools.

The district will work with food service provider Aramark on the design for the food truck.

Lorain Schools currently has a Mercy Health Lorain Clinic at Washington Elementary, 1025 W. 23rd St., which is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Graham also thanked Edwin Oley, market president for Mercy Health Lorain, and the health system staff for being “incredibly responsive” to general health care needs and amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

On Sept. 14, Mercy Health Lorain staff made a short-term plan to accommodate parents who were turned away due to maximum capacity for the Mercy Health clinic

Once again, this Lorain Schools administration continues to come up with clever ways of trying to keep students in schools.

Yes, some of the students are hungry, and some need medical treatment.

Utilizing old school buses for those needs is yet another way to serve children in the district.