IPS employees will get free health care at this new clinic
(MIRROR INDY) — Indianapolis Public Schools employees will have access to free primary care appointments with the establishment of a new clinic this fall.
The district announced on June 25 a new partnership with Ascension St. Vincent, which will staff the clinic located at the reopening T.C. Howe Middle School near Irvington.
The IPS Primary Care Clinic at Howe will provide health services to district employees, their spouses, and dependents. The clinic will offer scheduled primary care visits with no co-pay or fee due at the time of an IPS employee’s visit. It’s expected to open in August.
(Provided Photo/Alayna Wilkening/Mirror Indy)
IPS and Ascension St. Vincent officials announced the clinic at a ceremonial groundbreaking for projects at the Howe building, which will reopen this fall as a middle school as a part of IPS’ Rebuilding Stronger plan. Providers are expected to place an emphasis on employees’ physical, mental and emotional well-being.
“Our goal here, in partnership with IPS, is to provide world-class care to the IPS associates and their families,” Ascension St. Vincent CEO Kevin Speer said during the groundbreaking. “We are so excited to be a part of this and so excited to increase access to care, the quality of care and the way in which all of the associates and their families are taken care of here at IPS.”
IPS officials closed the former Thomas Carr Howe Community High School in 2020 after Indiana education officials returned Howe to the district following years of state intervention in the academically underperforming school.
Under Rebuilding Stronger, the school will be outfitted with new lighting, windows, flooring and athletic facilities along with other renovations funded through the district’s recent $410-million capital referendum.
Come fall, the building will house IPS’ new middle school, the health clinic and an existing Day Early Learning center, providing care for children 6 weeks to 6 years old.
Howe Principal Frances Rivera told Mirror Indy the early learning center, which opened last year, has already helped recruit teachers as she prepares to open the new middle school this year. Now, with the announcement of an onsite health clinic, she’ll have another tool in her belt.
She said she’s grateful for voters’ support of IPS’ referendum, which has made resources like the health clinic possible.
“Our students feel it, our teachers feel it and I feel it,” Rivera said at the groundbreaking. “It is the outpouring of support from our community that motivates us to come to school every day and do our absolute best.”