Aurora pulling medical staff from 10 Milwaukee schools

Aurora Health Care is withdrawing school nurses and nurse practitioners from 10 Milwaukee public schools this coming fall, the Journal Sentinel learned Thursday. Aurora's pullback is on top of a loss of state funding for nurses, which forced the School Board last month to dip into the superintendent's contingency fund to restore 15 of 22 nursing positions that were to be cut. MPS will be stretched to provide nurses for all schools this fall, but an MPS nursing supervisor said Thursday that she expects schools with 250 or more students will have at least some daily nursing coverage. "Aurora Health Care reviews its array of services on an ongoing basis to better align services with patient needs and best practices," Aurora spokesman Mike Brophy said in a statement Thursday, when asked about the cuts. Brophy said Aurora decided not to renew contracts for school-based health services at 10 MPS schools after investing in the program for more than a decade. Aurora's services have come at no cost to MPS.