Swine flu shots could be available at schools

By Emily Richmond

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Ten high school campuses may serve as large-scale vaccination sites to help fight the H1N1 “swine flu” virus.

The Clark County School District campuses would be used only if the Southern Nevada Health District’s regular clinics were unable to keep up with demand, spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore said.

The schools would be chosen based on geographic factors, including convenience for communities that might not have easy access to the Health District’s other locations. The vaccinations would be offered after regular school hours and on the weekends to minimize disruption. Parents would be expected to be present and to provide the Health District with consent.

The exception would be the three Clark County campuses serving medically fragile students. The School District wants to offer vaccines, with parental permission, at those campuses during the academic day. (National statistics suggest children with neuromuscular disorders such as cerebral palsy might be more vulnerable to H1N1, as the percentage of fatalities in that subgroup has been higher than with the typical seasonal flu.)

The Health District has received 20,600 doses of the nasal spray version of the flu vaccine and has administered 400 of them since Saturday. Sizemore expects participation to pick up considerably this fall when the Health District receives an estimated 43,100 doses of the injectable version of the vaccine — which appears to be preferred by many people who are less comfortable with the nasal spray version, Sizemore said.

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State Board of Education member Willa Chaney’s legal battles with the Nevada Education Department are not yet resolved, raising questions over whether she can carry out her elected duties.

After a federal audit had found irregularities in her firm’s handling of a program to provide meals to needy children when school was out of session, a district court judge in August 2008 ordered Chaney to repay $528,373 to the department.

Chaney says the government began investigating Smart Start’s summer food program, which the state shut down in 1999, only after she complained about the state’s handling of the program. She has denied any wrongdoing and her appeal is pending.

The Nevada Education Department’s legal counsel suggested Friday that Chaney “would greatly benefit” from an opinion by the state’s ethics commission on whether she should abstain from participating in certain board discussions and votes.

The comments by Deputy Attorney General Ed Irvin came before a teacher license revocation hearing. Chaney asked Irvin whether she needed to abstain from the hearing because Richard Segerblom, the attorney representing the teacher, had at one time been her legal counsel in the Smart Start case.

Irvin said the correct place to ask for such guidance is the Nevada Ethics Commission, but that as far as the interests of the Education Department went, it was his position that Chaney “probably must abstain” from the hearing involving Segerblom’s client, as well as future “discussions related to money.”

Chaney, who was elected in November, began to respond to Irvin’s remarks but broke down in tears and left the meeting room at the department’s Las Vegas offices. Irvin, who was participating via videoconference from Carson City, quickly apologized for upsetting Chaney, reiterating that he meant no offense to her personally.

Chaney abstained from participating in the revocation hearing, and later told the Sun she can separate her ongoing legal battle from her obligations as a board member.

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Five of the School District’s top-paid administrators will each take a one-day unpaid furlough for each of the next two years — Lauren Kohut-Rost, deputy superintendent of instruction; Charlene Green, deputy superintendent of student support services; Jeff Weiler, chief financial officer; Martha Tittle, human resources chief; and Bill Hoffman, general counsel.

Each of the one-day furloughs will save $2,958 in taxpayer dollars. While that’s a fraction of a drop in the bucket compared with the district’s annual operating budget of more than $2 billion, “it’s a start,” Weiler said. “We’re doing what we can do.”

The administrators’ union refused a previous request by Rulffes to consider furlough days as a means of easing the budget crunch. Weiler and the others are not subject to the collective bargaining agreement negotiated by the union.