Northwestern School Corporation is joining the ranks of other Howard County schools that now pay for athletic trainers.
The Northwestern School Board approved a contract Monday with Community Howard Regional Health for athletic training services.
The contract, worth $63,500 ($83,000 including benefits), will provide Northwestern with an athletic trainer employed by the hospital.
“Basically, we would be subsidizing the insurance plan they would take through Community not through our district,” said Superintendent Lindsey Brown who added it was a requirement of the agreement.
Monday marked the first meeting with Brown at the helm. She replaces Kristen Bilkey who retired at the end of the 2024-25 school year.
Brown spent a year as superintendent at Delphi Community School Corporation. Before that, she was at Eastern Howard School Corporation for 13 years.
Northwestern’s contract will come out of its operations fund.
Operations fund expenses have been a concern for schools in recent years. That’s expected to continue due to new property tax legislation — school operations funds come from property taxes.
New credits and tax exemptions for property owners will limit how much local taxing units, like schools, can raise via property taxes.
School officials expect this will complicate projects, maintenance of facilities and other expenditures related to running school buildings.
Northwestern is the latest school paying for services that were once provided by healthcare facilities free of charge.
For years, Community Health provided athletic trainers to area schools for no charge. That changed last year when Community required schools to pay for services like athletic trainers, mental health clinicians and therapists.
Hospital officials told the Kokomo Tribune in 2024 that schools needed to pay for the services due to changes on the health network’s end, including rising costs and lower reimbursements.
State legislation from 2023 also appeared to be part of the reason. School officials said at the time that Community Health officials told them it was about how networks bill patients.
Kokomo, Eastern, Taylor and Western schools were impacted by Community’s decision. Kokomo schools found a different provider in 2023.
Eastern and Western searched for months in 2024 for a new provider before ultimately reupping with Community. The schools were quoted more than $100,000 each to keep their athletic trainers, though both quotes were negotiated down.
Taylor’s agreement is still good for a few years.
Schools losing their athletic trainers or being asked to pay for them is an issue for many, especially rural school districts.
Maconaquah School Corporation, for example, does not have its own athletic trainer. Often, the opposing school is asked to bring their own. The Indiana High School Athletic Association does not require schools to have trainers.
Superintendent Brown said she had the same issue while at Delphi.
“There are not a lot of options out there,” she said. “This is definitely an issue school corporation have around the state.”
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