Franciscan Health Indianapolis is pictured in this 2020 file photo.
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. board members on Monday will consider an agreement with Franciscan Health Sports Medicine to provide athletic trainers for the district over the next year.
The four athletic trainers who currently provide services to BCSC teams under the Columbus Regional Health umbrella — McKensie Hurt, Michaela Swafford, Kate Cockerham and Chance Newkirk — will continue on with the district under Franciscan Health if the proposed agreement is ultimately approved, administrators said.
This comes after CRH in June announced plans to end its sports medicine program and close an affiliated practice at NexusPark, citing a range of external pressures on the hospital system. That also meant CRH would not renew contracts that provided athletic trainers to BCSC and IU Columbus.
CRH officials said a range of “outside pressures” influenced the decision to end the program, including reductions in government funding, changes to reimbursement rates, “a lot of uncertainty just with government legislation and administration in general,” among other factors that have added further pressure to an already challenging landscape in the healthcare industry.
The contract CRH had with IU Columbus ended on Aug. 21, but the agreement with BCSC is still in effect until Sept. 30.
The agreement school board members will consider is for four athletic trainers — two each at North and East — and would last from Oct. 1 until Sept. 30, 2026.
The cost of the contract is $140,000 or $11,666 per month. Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Brett Boezeman said in a memo to school board members that “other areas will be adjusted to accommodate this expense.”
CRH previously provided athletics trainers to the district at no cost.
The scope of services that will be provided is pretty much the same. BCSC officials said it was a priority to keep things as similar as possible, with essentially the only difference being the logo trainers will wear on their shirts.
School board members are going to go through a budget work shop on Monday, and included in a slide presentation regarding that is a note that the $140,000 will either come out of the operations fund or referendum operating fund.
BCSC’s current group of athletic trainers and the district’s athletic directors were well-involved in interviews with potential athletic trainer service providers and had a hand in the final recommendation to the school board, according to BCSC.
Per the proposed agreement, athletic trainers would provide their services during daily after-school training room hours, all home IHSAA athletic events as needed, away varsity football games, and all IHSAA or conference tournaments hosted at North or East.
The trainers will travel to away IHSAA tournaments as scheduling availability allows, and will also provide summer training room hours as agreed upon by a given school and Franciscan Health, according to the proposed agreement.
There would also be an option where Franciscan Health will help coordinate sports physicals for school athletes at a fee agreed upon by a given school and Franciscan Health. A portion of that money would go to a given school’s athletic department, although the agreement notes it is “strongly recommended” that those funds go toward buying orthopedic and sports medicine supplies for student athletes.
Additional use of athletic trainers for event and practice coverage will be on a fee-for-service basis depending on trainer availability. The base cost is $100 per event for the first four hours, and $35/hour for each additional hour.
The agreement goes on to include marketing and advertising obligations on behalf of BCSC if the agreement is ultimately approved, like featuring Franciscan Health’s logo on rosters distributed at events and on banners at athletic venues as agreed upon by the two parties.
The school board will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Terrace Room at the BCSC Administration Building, located at 1200 Central Ave.
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