Prosper is ground zero for pediatric supremacy, with both Children’s Health and Cook Children’s purchasing property there this year as DFW’s population explodes northward. Both systems announced plans to build pediatric hospitals in the suburb, and a freedom of information request from the Dallas Morning News revealed an additional $2.85 million worth of programs headed to Prosper in addition to the $2.5 million football stadium named for the system.
The deal with Prosper is more comprehensive and costly than any other of their affiliations, Children’s Health told DMN. The move north is another in a list of moves that include the sale of community-based clinics that were often in lower-income neighborhoods, the consolidation or rehab facilities, and the construction of other medical facilities in the ever expanding northern suburbs, where good schools and master-planned communities have created some of the fastest growing and wealthiest towns and schools districts around.
“Prosper is the next Plano/Frisco, and we know that,” Children’s Health CEO Chris Durovich told the DMN editorial board.
DMN says the programs offered to Prosper include school nurses, student-trainer scholarships, coach’s movie night at the stadium, $500,000 worth of performance tests for Prosper athletes, leasing school space for rehab services for $390,000, and classes for trainers and nurses valued at $220,000.
“I know we’re in a blessed spot,” Greg Bradley, Prosper ISD’s assistant superintendent for business and operations told DMN. “There’s zero doubt that we have advantages in Prosper ISD. But this kind of fell in our lap, and we were able to do it. I would never apologize for advocating for our kids.”
Read the whole story here.
