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Suffolk Public Schools celebrated a new division addition providing pharmaceutical assistance. The school’s operation center marked the grand opening of the SPS Health Pharmacy on Thursday, Dec. 7, located at 3264 Pruden Blvd. Eligible to any employees, spouses and dependents covered by the Suffolk Public Schools health plan, the full-service pharmacy carries generic, brand and specialty medications as well as over-the-counter items at cost. The pharmacy also provides deliveries with services for Nansemond River High School and Colonel Fred Cherry Middle School starting in the week of January 15 next year for those available on the plan.

Following the ceremony, SPS Coordinator of Employee Health Anne McCoy expressed wanting the pharmacy to be a beneficial asset to school staff.

“Super excited,” said McCoy. “Hope it will be able to have some reduced savings for our staff members [and] give them a great benefit.”

Chief Financial Officer Wendy Foresman detailed more on what SPS staff can expect from the pharmacy’s options.

“They’ll provide Tier 1 and Tier 2 medications for our staff,” Foresman said. “They’ll provide them in cost to the school division and at a very reduced copay, $3 copay or $6 copay. They do all home deliveries just like any other mail order pharmaceutical that comes to their house and they’ll also offer a ton of over the counter at cost products.”

SPS Superintendent Dr. John B. Gordon III also added that the pharmacy was a project aiming to help provide more support for SPS staff.

“This is actually another recruitment and retention project because we have been kind of discussing this idea for a couple years and we’re just trying to look for other ways to be able to support our staff,” Gordon said. “So not only will it be able to save our staff thousands of dollars a year in prescriptions, but it’s also prescriptions on demand. So if there’s things that you need over the counter or through the pharmacy itself, just put the request in and we’ll see what we’ll be able to do. And with the delivery, we also want to try to make it as convenient for all our employees regardless of where you work in the school division.”

The SPS Health Pharmacy will be open Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. until noon. On weekdays, the pharmacy will be closed for lunch from 1:30 p.m. until 2 p.m.

For more information, call 757-922-9200.