The Natrona County School District has received a grant of $5,300 from the Blue Envelope Health Fund to maintain its 50 automated external defibrillators.

But a trustee, who also serves on the Fund's board, said that will be a one-time only grant.

The district's board of trustees formally received the grant at its bimonthly meeting Monday.

In 2009, the district received the AEDs as a donation.

The district's executive director Mike Bond said teachers are trained to use the AEDs as  part of their cardiopulmonary resuscitation training.

The AEDs require constant upkeep especially with their batteries and pads, the district's risk manager Andrea Nester wrote in the grant request to the Fund for the maintenance.

Trustee Rita Walsh said she would recuse herself from voting on the acceptance of the grant because she is a member of the Blue Envelope Health Fund, which donated the defibrillators.

"We want them to work and to be available to our parents and our staff and our students," she said.

While the Fund provided the AEDs for the district like it has for other organizations in Casper, but it has never paid for their maintenance, Walsh said.

The district wanted maintenance funding for four or five years, but the Fund will pay for the maintenance for only one year, she said.

The Blue Envelope Health Fund hopes that the district will build maintenance costs into its future budgets, Walsh said.

Board Chairman David Applegate agreed.

"That will be a topic of our budget discussions this spring, absolutely," Applegate said.

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