Letter: Torres High School will host school-based clinic

Last month a reader posed questions regarding the source of funding for the Camarena Health school-based clinic at Torres High School (THS). As our recent infographic showed, Torres will be unlike any school in Madera County and will set a new standard for the Central Valley. Although school-based health clinics are very common across the USA, our first local example was built on the Madera South High School campus in a stand-alone structure on the corner of Pecan Avenue and Stadium Road. This clinic serves a joint purpose to support the needs of the students and staff and also any community member who needs health-related services.

This successful partnership between Madera Unified (MUSD) and Camarena Health has been so dynamic and beneficial that the MUSD Governing Board agreed to consider another joint venture at THS. Camarena Health and MUSD partnered to design a state-of-the-art facility built into the existing plans at THS. The total cost exceeded $1 million, which was funded completely by Camarena Health and will be leased for the next 10 years.

This clinic will play host to MUSD school nurses and health staff to provide the normal services of any school nurse’s office in one section of the facility. Another section will be accessible to the public for general medicine, dentistry, and much more. All normal means of payment for health services will be accepted just as with any Camarena clinic. MUSD will not be paying for free services for students, staff, or the public. Additionally, we were able to build an attached career technical education classroom for our certified nursing assistant students to support their clinical hours. Our future CNA candidates will be able to observe and work within the clinic on their own campus to make an outstanding program even more efficient and effective.

Torres High School has so much to offer MUSD students and possibly most importantly, it serves as a milestone in education and innovation, unlike anything Madera has seen before. Here’s to the 21st century Toros and all they’ll do to make Madera proud and prosperous!

With enthusiasm and pride,

— Todd Lile,

Superintendent,

Madera Unified School District