Chandler school board debates, approves health-ed agreement
Metro Creative
Interest in yoga is what led to a health education organization asking the Chandler Unified Governing Board to approve an agreement with the district at its March 26 meeting. The board eventually voted unanimously to approve the contract.
A discussion and vote on a contract with a health-education provider turned contentious and got sidetracked at the Chandler Unified Governing Board’s March 26 meeting.
The board eventually voted unanimously to approve a CUSD contract with HealthCorps, Inc., which will provide some of the district’s grades 5-12 students with “a new afterschool club opportunity around health and wellness,” according to a staff report.
That didn’t happen until Board President Patti Serrano grew audibly frustrated with board member Kurt Rohrs, both in meeting procedure and in his objections to the contract and having HealthCorps on campus.
“I want to take a moment to recognize the role of the board president,” Serrano said at one point. “Make sure you’re recognized by the board president before speaking, to keep order here.”
Rohrs initially said he would be a “no” vote on the agreement, which allows HealthCorps to bring college students onto CUSD campuses, after school, to “co-facilitate” a yoga club and other health-promoting education topics.
While the plan seemed fairly basic, Rohrs said he feels it sounds “too much like behavioral health counseling.”
Rohrs read portions of the state law that applies to providing behavioral health care without a license, including the provision that anyone who “conspires with or aids and abets another to commit any act described in subsection C of this section is guilty of a class 6 felony.”
“I personally don’t want to go down this path,” Rohrs said. “The state’s been very, very clear they don’t want schools doing behavioral health counseling.”
Associate Superintendent Craig Gilbert said HealthCorps’ name was brought to CUSD by the Arizona Department of Education.
Representatives of HealthCorps, who were also at the meeting, said not only is their outreach work with schools fully funded by government agencies, it’s also an opt-in program only brought to students after school with written parent permission.
The board accepted board member Ryan Heap’s amendment to clarify in the contract the program would only be offered after school. His motion to table the contract was defeated in a 2-2 tie; board vice president Barb Mozdzen wasn’t at the March 26 meeting.
Serrano and other board members and administrators verbally wrestled with Rohrs on other topics at the March 26 meeting, especially media center remodeling for a pair of elementary schools.
Jason W. Brooks News Editor | Chandler Independent
Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.
Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.
Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.
Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.
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