The Clovis Unified School District will be cutting the ribbon on a new health center that will provide access to routine medical treatment and services without co-pay to more than 12,000 employees, retirees and dependents.

The ribbon-cutting on Friday will mark the official opening of the center, which took a four-year process to create. The center is will be operated by miCare, and is part an effort by Clovis Unified to lower costs and boost services to the members of its health plan.

It will be located in the former ITT Tech building near the corner of Herndon and Peach avenues in Clovis.

The district’s health plan, which is self-managed by a 123-member committee of employees and retirees covered by the plan, has bucked national healthcare cost trends, which are rising annually by 5 percent. Instead, Clovis Unified employees wanted to mitigate their own costs.

In addition, all covered employees were also given a two-month break from their monthly health plan premiums.