Ryan Burgher, Agaitas executive director, speaks to the Warsaw School Board Tuesday. Photo by Jackie Gorski, Times-Union.

By Jackie Gorski
Times-Union

WARSAW — Warsaw School Board was given the 2024-25 nurse report Tuesday, July 15, and heard about some initiatives and projects of the nursing staff.

Nurse Coordinator Kennedy Wagner explained how nurses benefit the school corporation. Through health promotion and disease prevention and management, nurses help increase attendance. Through improved attendance, healthy students are in the classroom ready to learn. Nurses also help save an hour a day for principals, 20 minutes per day for teachers and 45 minutes per day for secretaries. Nursing staff are also able to help improve the general well-being of the staff.

School nurses are responsible for compliance with immunization requirements, recognizing signs of physical abuse and neglect, handling responses to medication, monitoring communicable diseases, identifying and treating accidents and injuries and vision and dental screening and referrals, she said. Other roles nurses fill include helping with food drives, collaborating with parents and physicians on proper medical care, instructing and training staff on numerous medical emergencies and safety measures and connecting families and students to community resources, she said.

During the 2023-24 school year, there were 59,435 visits to the school nurse corporation wide. During the 2024-25 school year, that number increased to 65,245 visits. Those 65,245 visits included 223 visits that were asthma related, 50 that were seizure related, 198 that were food allergy related and 24 that were diabetic related.

Something new Wagner brought up was CarePortal, which is a tool that connects churches and community groups with families in need of support. Nurses have taken the lead in each building to help ensure the tool is used consistently and effectively. So far, 266 students have been served and has a one-year economic impact of $6,592.

Another thing nursing staff has taken on is Project ADAM, which is an initiative focused on preventing sudden cardiac death in youth through increased AED and CPR training, she said. Each school is working toward certification in the initiative. To support this initiative, secondary schools received funding from Health First Indiana to purchase new Avive AEDs. Elementary schools were each provided with an additional Zoll AED, originally donated by the K21 Health Foundation.

Earlier in the meeting, the board heard about Agaitas and the camps it provides. Ryan Burgher, Agaitas executive director, said Agaitas has been in existence since 2012, so students from Warsaw Community Schools students have been coming to Agaitas summer camps since then. The focus of Agaitas is to use sports to share Christ, he said. “I will give a quick disclaimer if you don’t know what Agaitas is. We do not force any student … when I say what we’re doing through the schools or in the schools or outside the schools, we do not force any student to do anything. It’s their choice, their parent’s choice. And we just follow everything like Youth for Christ or Fellowship with Christian Students would. But we do work with a lot of students through Warsaw Community Schools,” he said.

Agaitas offers summer camps, such as baseball, basketball, pickleball, cross country, rugby, golf and soccer athletic camps.

Two years ago, Joe’s Kids went to Agaitas and asked if Agaitas would be willing to do a camp for kids with disabilities. Burgher said it was probably “the highlight of our summer.

”What was started in Warsaw is expanding into other areas, he said. Agaitas held the first soccer camp at Wawasee High School where over 100 students attended. Burgher said transportation is an issue “in our community and really around Indiana.” Agaitas was challenged by the K21 Health Foundation to meet students  where they were.

They go into low-income areas around Warsaw and put on pop-up free camps. During the pop-up camps, there is also a dinner and devotion. He said they’re held 5:30-7 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Some of the camps they’ve done were in Fairlane, Green Acres, Hideaway Hills, Suburban Acres, Shamrock Village, Westhaven Estates and Whispering Pines.

He said the pop up camps are continuing to grow. A lot of those students are coming out because they want something positive in their lives.