DATE: Sunday, June 15, 1997                 TAG: 9706150041

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   66 lines

PORTSMOUTH SCHOOL'S HEALTH CENTER WORKS TO MEND ITS FINANCES THE CENTER PROVIDES BASIC MEDICAL CARE FOR STUDENTS WHO MIGHT OTHERWISE GO WITHOUT.

The outlook is still uncertain. But thanks to a few grants and donations from private groups and citizens, the school district's Sunshine Health Center limped its way through the spring semester.

The center provides basic health services for city schoolchildren, especially those who might otherwise go without medical care such as physicals and treatment for simple illnesses and injuries.

At this point, it has enough income to make it through at least the next seven months, center operators said.

The district, which oversees the center, has yet to make an official announcement about its fate, however.

District administrators have said that they wanted the center to be self-supporting - given the district's own struggles to stretch dollars just to meet basic academic needs.

Whether the center will have much of a pulse next school year is hard to say, said Phyllis F. Bricker, the district's medical services supervisor.

``Right now, we are in a quandary. That's the best way to put it,'' she said Thursday.

Yet Bricker and other Sunshine staffers remain upbeat.

``Everybody's been very optimistic that all along - by hook or crook - we were going to continue providing the services,'' said Anita Presson, Sunshine's nurse.

The center, Bricker added, is awaiting word later this month on its grant application to a state foundation. Staffers also are studying ways to increase business.

Located on the campus of Hunt-Mapp Middle School, the center's financial bind began when previous grants were decreased or simply ran out.

This past semester, it required about $6,500 a month for supplies and salaries.

Parents must sign a consent form and pay $5 to register their children for care. Fees are based on family income and size. Medicaid insurance also is accepted for some services.

But the not-for-profit clinic, which will have summer hours, does not require students or their parents to have medical insurance.

About 62 percent of city students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. And many of the nearly 2,000 students Sunshine has served since it opened in 1995 are from disadvantaged families, Presson said.

National studies also have shown that overall, those between the ages of 10 and 19 are most likely to lack health insurance. Many working-poor and middle-class parents can't afford higher insurance premiums for health coverage that includes their children.

Locally, parents say they like Sunshine's offerings because they're economical and convenient.

``It does serve a purpose, and it's located at a good point in town,'' said Ellen Byrd, who has taken her 10-year-old child there for a routine physical.

Byrd said she also purchased five raffle tickets during the center's recent fund-raiser, which brought in $500.

The Rev. Leon J. Boone, a city advocate for the center, said he would hate to see it fold.

``I'm one of those persons who believes if children are not well-nourished or if their health is not up to par, it is more difficult for them to learn,'' he said.

``By having a center such as that, it gives those children the opportunity to be examined if they don't have health coverage, or if they come from a background that ignores the importance of having health care.''

For more information or to make a donation, call 393-5412.

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