The Langston School-Based Health Center's permanent facility, providing primary healthcare services to students with parental permission as well as faculty and staff of Langston Chapel Elementary School and adjoining Langston Chapel Middle School, will hold its grand opening 10:30–11:15 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 26.

This first school-based health center in the Bulloch County Schools has been operated at a smaller scale since the start of the current school year in August 2025 by East Georgia Healthcare Center Inc. in partnership with the school district. Not to be confused with the similar-named Statesboro hospital, East Georgia Healthcare is a Swainsboro-based nonprofit corporation that operates healthcare clinics throughout the region.

Until now, the school-based health center has been housed temporarily in a previously vacant 375-square-foot area set up as two exam rooms and a lab space inside Langston Chapel Elementary School.

But the much larger permanent facility, a custom-designed modular building outside but adjacent to both schools, has now been installed and built out at a cost of about 33% of the total $1 million state grant of originally federal funds awarded for launching the center. 

"We had it designed so that it is a functioning doctor's office," said Dawn Tysinger, Ph.D., Bulloch County Schools executive director of student wellness and support. "It looks like any other doctor's office that you would go into."

The new health center encompasses 1,680 square feet, including a waiting room with adjoining restroom, a combined receptionist area and nurses' station, three exam rooms, an office for the medical provider, a staff break room, a lab and a "flexible space" that could be used as a fourth exam room or for counseling services.

How it's funded

To be clear, this center is not a free clinic and does not take the place of the school nurses. As a federally qualified health center, East Georgia Healthcare bills Medicaid or private insurance but also has a process for families who do not have any form of insurance to pay on "a sliding fee scale," said Tysinger.

Back in 2022, Gov. Brian Kemp announced a $125 million state investment in a School-Based Health Center program, to help reach underserved communities.

Tysinger wrote Bulloch County's grant application, which was submitted to the Georgia Department of Education. As previously reported, the Langston Chapel schools were chosen for Bulloch County's entry into the program because they are Title I schools with the district's highest percentage of students who are in foster care, are Medicaid eligible, or are experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness.

Bulloch received a grant totaling $1,027,000, with "part of that grant earmarked by the state for construction and establishment of the facility itself," Tysinger said. "Then the remainder of the funds go to our partner in this, East Georgia Healthcare, for the operation for a period of time."

Construction costs, including the building and its placement, electrical, sewer and water hookups and security measures, cost approximately $335,000, she said. Originally the state awarded $308,000 for this portion of the $1 million grant, but then a distribution of additional funding supplied about $27,000 more, which Tysinger said was fortunate, considering the rising expense of construction.

Grants were awarded on a competitive application basis, and the opportunity for this particular grant funding has now ended.

"Our round of grant funding was actually the final round from that initial $125 million," Tysinger said. "I wrote this grant in the fall of 2024, and we received notice in December 2024 that we were one of four school districts who had been awarded that grant across the state to begin the process of establishing a school-based health center."

The school district has only until this October to expend the initial grant funds.

"But through our partnership then we will have the building, and essentially we're leasing the space to East Georgia Healthcare for $1 each year to continue operation out of that facility," she said.

A little over $600,000 from the grant was available to East Georgia Healthcare to get the service up and running, according to Tysinger.

"During the period of the grant they can obviously use that for establishing electronic health records, for equipping the center, for any sort of supplies, and then they can use that for personnel salaries as well," she said.

Over 20% signed up

So far, with the temporary facility, the parents or guardians of "just over 20%" of students across the two schools have given standing permission for their children to access the School-Based Health Center, Tysinger reports. With 599 students at Langston Chapel Elementary and 771 at Langston Chapel Middle as of an October count, the two schools had 1,370 students, so more than 20% means at least 275 students were signed up.

The temporary facility has been averaging about 10 patients per day, and the larger, permanent center is expected to increase the capacity to about 16 per day, including students and LCES and LCMS employees.

"Now, it's important to note that even when we have parent permission for our students, we do not see them without also having same-day permission for that student," said Tysinger. "So for example, if a student goes to the school nurse and they're running a fever and the nurse feels like they need to be seen, she would call the parent (who has given standing permission for the child to be seen at the center)."

Parents are also given the opportunity to come to the health center and be present for their student's appointment, or "reverse telehealth" is available to provide a "virtual meeting" with the parent. However, the school-based center does not, at this time, offer health care services to students' parents or to students from other schools.

Tysinger — a nationally-certified school psychologist whose departmental purview includes the school district's psychologists, social workers, speech-language pathologists and therapists, as well as the Transitions Learning Center and LIFE program — said psychological counseling services will be offered part-time at the school-based clinic. 

East Georgia Healthcare's current team of providers at the center include Alania Greene, FNP (family nurse practitioner); Marissa Losolla, LPN; and Regina Quarterman, patient representative. 

This Thursday's open house event will feature a ribbon cutting ceremony, tours of the new facility and refreshments. Tysinger, Chief Operating Officer Peyton Frye of East Georgia Healthcare, Schools Superintendent Charles Wilson and LCMS Principal Willie Robinson, Ed.D., are slated to offer remarks. Parking is available in the schools' athletic center parking lot, next to the health center.

A principal view

Phoned last week, Robinson said response to the clinic "has been incredibly encouraging" from the middle school's students and their families, as well as teachers and staff. Unlike the regular school nurses, who can administer medication only if it has been sent to the school ahead of time, the center's nurse practitioner and on-call doctor can provide the level of care available at an off-site doctor's office, he noted.

"Quite simply, healthy students, they learn better, and for many families, transportation, work schedules, access to care can be challenges," Robinson said. "This helps ensure our students receive timely medical attention so they can stay in class, be engaged and ready to learn."