Jean Grabeel, director of health services in Springfield schools, to retire after 30 years
For three decades, Jean Grabeel's name has been synonymous with student health in Springfield.
The longtime director of health services in Springfield Public Schools announced plans to retire this summer.
"I just felt it was a season for change," said Grabeel, hired by the Springfield district in 1991 after working five years in an area district.
"For 35 years my motto has always been 'Do what you love and love what you do,' and you must have a passion for it. Obviously, school health is a mission."
Grabeel stepped into the public spotlight more during the COVID-19 pandemic, where she was often called on to explain how the district was responding and why.
She worked closely with other health experts, tracked the ever-evolving guidance and responded with on-site testing, contact tracing and vaccinations.
But long before the pandemic, Grabeel played a pivotal role — albeit, at times, a more behind-the-scenes one — in responding to student health needs in the district.
"What she says and what she thinks holds, and should hold, a ton of weight, because she is well respected," said Bret Range, the district's executive director of student and school services in SPS. "She knows what she is talking about when it comes to health issues and ... she understands how those health issues impact schools."
Grabeel forged partnerships with community groups that resulted in extra resources for needy families, from weekend backpacks full of free food to the mobile clinics providing much-needed dental care.
Under her leadership, the state's largest district grew from 21 school nurses in the early 1990s to 71 now. There is at least one in each elementary and middle school and two in each high school.
Through COVID and before, Jean Grabeel brought empathy and knowledge to her role
Range said Grabeel notified him in mid-March that she planned to retire June 30. In the moment, he thought of her expertise during the pandemic.
"I just said to her 'There is no way we could have made it through the past two or three years without you and I don't know if anybody can ever repay you and the only thing I can say is thank you,'" he recalled.
Jon Mooney, assistant director of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, has known Grabeel for his entire career. He said she brings knowledge and empathy to the role.
"It meant so much to us to be able to have a key partner like Jean through the pandemic who was adaptable and flexibility with the ever-changing situation," he said. "As we continued to learn more and evolve, Jean was right there with us."
Mooney said her "love for the kids within the school district is inspiring" for him and for others in public health.
Grabeel said she worried about staying current on the latest guidance and making the best decisions.
"It's really a heavy weight when you think about the health and safety of your staff and students," she said. "And this was life-threatening."
More: SPS reports 'significant increase' in COVID-19 cases since Christmas Eve
The position has been posted and requires experience and at least a master's degree. The pay range is up to $117,626.
"There is going to be a whole bunch of institutional history and knowledge and practices that are just going to walk out the door, that are hard to replace," Range said.
"We'll replace her but you're never going to fully be able to replace the void that she is going to leave."
Jean Grabeel looks forward to spending time with family
Grabeel grew up in Sullivan, near St. Louis, and moved to Springfield to go to St. John's School of Nursing.
She has two children, Lucas and Autumn, who both live in Los Angeles and work in the entertainment industry, and a musician son-in-law who works with the country music star Dwight Yoakum.
Lucas may be best known for his role as Ryan Evans in the High School Musical films and the TV series Smallville.
In retirement, Grabeel hopes to spend more time with her children and a grandchild. "It will be nice to have a trip and not have to actually work from there as well."
Q&A with Jean Grabeel before retirement
In a Monday interview, Grabeel talked about her lengthy career in the district and how the role of school nurse has changed.
Q: What led you to school nursing?
Grabeel's father worked in the space program at McDonnell Douglas and she aspired to be the first female astronaut, a dream dashed when she developed carsickness.
Other family members were medical providers, including her mom, who was operating room supervisor at a community hospital. Her mom set a powerful example.
"She was pretty much the health provider for the entire family, especially the older generation. My mom was always going to their homes or they were coming to our home for care," she recalled. "And I just wanted to have that kind of knowledge."
Q: How has the role of school nurse change during your career?
Her first school nursing job was in the Logan-Rogersville district, where she worked prior to Springfield.
Grabeel said the K-12 job description was to "fulfill the immunization law and do what the building principal deems necessary," which meant providing first aid and basic health needs at school.
More: How Springfield schools will spend $3M to expand health, counseling services
"I quickly learned that they're coming from an educational model, they didn't come from a medical model, so my role was really to help merge the two and bridge the gap," she said.
In the early years, she advocated for school nurses to be more proactive in helping the students with asthma, diabetes, and seizure disorders with "chronic health management so they could have a better opportunity to learn."
She said the scope of the job kept expanding to focus on "barriers to learning" such as students experiencing homelessness or food insecurity.
To address that, nurses work closely with teachers and others. "That has always been my goal to move things forward so we're working in tandem with other departments."
Q. How did the pandemic change the role of school nurse?
"We were prepared, in the beginning, to respond to communicable disease because that is part of the role," she said. "What changed is that it became a pandemic so what was true in the morning was not necessarily true in the afternoon."
Grabeel said the shift required nurses to be "extremely flexible" and change procedures quickly, if needed.
"Procedures within the nurse's office were different was well, so suddenly having to wear PPE the entire time, looking at referrals and exclusions from school, and working directly with the health department," she said.
School nurses were drafted to help with contract tracing in the district, to more quickly identify anyone who may have been exposed to COVID-19.
More: Springfield district will offer free COVID-19 tests to students, staff in two locations
"The role of the school nurse changed dramatically," she said. "That meant more training for them and developing processes for reporting."
Grabeel said the procedures kept changing, as new guidance was released. Later, the school nurses were directly involved with giving the COVID-19 vaccine.
She said if the district faces another outbreak, it will be better prepared as a result of the pandemic.
Q. How did the pandemic alter the perception of school nurses?
Grabeel said the public has long held nurses in high esteem and the pandemic amplified that respect.
"People trust that they know what they are doing," she said. " ... People turn to us to get the information and try to discern what is really the science behind what is going on and why we made the changes we did in response to the pandemic."
She said the pandemic spotlighted the important role nurses play in schools. "I am so thankful we have a staff of health professionals that really are an example, not only for Springfield, but for the state."
Q: In a career spanning more than 30 years, what are you most proud of?
Grabeel said she was proud of creating a "system of health care" for students and being able to provide a range of services, from vaccines to the mobile tooth truck, during the school day.
She said the district's partnerships with Community Partnership of the Ozarks, Ozarks Food Harvest, Care To Learn, Ronald McDonald House, and many other groups have made a huge difference for students and their families.
"That also helped us to respond to the pandemic in a better way as well because we already had those relationships," she said.
Q: Why retire now?
In announcing her retirement to staff, Grabeel said it was simply time. She said she is fortunate that she is not ill, not moving, not disgruntled and not planning to go work in another job.
"I just felt like it was time to make that transition," she said.
Grabeel said she has been involved in "succession planning" for many years so that whoever takes over will have a good system in place.
She said many have worked hard for years to create a "firm foundation" so the health services developed by the district will carry on.
"I am so thankful and happy to work with the highly professional school nurses here on staff. They're stellar and one person cannot do it alone," she said. "It's a team of people and we have an excellent team."
In the future, between visiting family on the West Coast, Grabeel plans to volunteer with the district.
"I'll be around. I'll be here to help with some small projects and to give flu vaccines," she said. " ... I'll plan to help with some things but just on a part-time basis."
Claudette Riley is the education reporter for the News-Leader. Email news tips to criley@news-leader.com.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: SPS' health leader Jean Grabeel to retire after 30 years
