Lake Forest Academy opens in-house Community Health Center
Lake Forest Academy debuted its own campus health center on the heels of the recent opening of the Glenbrook School Health Center at Glenbrook South High School.
The 4,500-square-foot Lake Forest Academy Community Health Center, located in the private school's former Hutchinson Commons, was funded by the school's 2022 gala campaign and ongoing fundraising efforts totaling $1.5 million.
The facility unites physical and psychological health services in the lower level of what is now called New Hall, a news release said.
It features two examination rooms, an overnight room for students and health center staff, resting rooms, a group gathering space, a laboratory and an outdoor garden. Fundraising efforts provided for an endowment fund to ensure the maintenance of the center.
"With the expansion of nursing and counseling staff, this is a logical step to provide the necessary space to accommodate a comprehensive, on-campus health center that will serve day and boarding students as well as residential faculty and staff and their families," said Anna Kliner, director of health services.
Lake Forest Academy, founded in 1857, serves a coed, international clientele of 440 students in ninth through 12th grades.
Unlike the Glenbrook facility or the one run by Maine Township High School District 207, which contracts out with Advocate Aurora Health for its care, Lake Forest Academy has a full-time staff to run its health center, a school representative said. The school has about 220 boarding students and some faculty and staff that live on campus.
Following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kliner was recruited to the school in August 2020 to head a collaborative approach to health care, which allowed the school to provide in-person classes during the pandemic, the news release said.
Under Kliner, the health services department expanded to include 24-hour nursing care and on-site support for overnight care. Planning for the new Community Health Center started then.
The health center debuted last Wednesday with an open house for faculty, students and staff, followed by a Thursday evening reception to recognize donors for the project, Lake Forest Academy said.