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Guilford County Schools to focus on student health, safety in new strategic plan

Guilford County Schools celebrated the launch of a new strategic direction Tuesday evening. 

The plan has four main focus areas, which include student health and safety. GCS Superintendent Whitney Oakley drew upon her own experience as a principal as she explained the need for health care in the district. 

“We were looking at data trying to think about what was not working in the school, and we were in a very rural area," Oakley said. "And a school counselor came in and she said, 'The reason that kids aren't performing is because they don't have access to health care.'”

Oakley says student performance improved after opening a health clinic in the school. That’s something she intends to replicate throughout the district. 

“I'm very proud to partner with Cone Health, the Guilford Education Alliance and our county commissioners to expand telehealth clinics at our Title I elementary schools over the next few years," she said.

Oakley also discussed the district’s plans for student safety, which include purchasing 5,000 cameras and adding touchless security scanners to middle schools.

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.

Amy Diaz began covering education in North Carolina’s Piedmont region and High Country for WFDD in partnership with Report For America in 2022. Before entering the world of public radio, she worked as a local government reporter in Flint, Mich. where she was named the 2021 Rookie Writer of the Year by the Michigan Press Association. Diaz is originally from Florida, where she interned at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and freelanced for the Tampa Bay Times. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Florida, but truly got her start in the field in elementary school writing scripts for the morning news. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.

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