COORDINATED DISTRICT HEALTH

Henry Clay High School shows environmental leadership

Wellness fair gives teens straight answers to tough questions

By BARBARA GOLDMAN, Staff Writer

Published:

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 1:24 AM EDT

 The exhibits covered a wide range of topics such as drug prevention, HPV prevention, healthy relationships, coping with stress, nutrition and tips to being a healthy teen. Students could undergo a derma scan to show any changes in their skin from the sun or grab a carton of milk while learning about dairy options. The Mason County Health Department, Kentucky State Police, Hospice of Hope, Maysville Police Department, and Primary Plus were among the exhibitors.”They showed us a lot of information we should know and need to learn. It’s important to look at our health and take care of ourselves,” freshman Alex Hamilton said.

Hamilton said he found the MPD booth manned by Sgt. Chris Neal the most interesting.

“He showed us how dangerous it can be if you’re drinking or smoking,” said Hamilton, who added he was surprised to learn some energy drinks still have alcohol in them.

Guest Dan Newman spoke with each group separately on topics ranging such as abstinence, sex education and preventing sexually transmitted disease. Newman has 25 years of experience in public health. He was a senior health educator for the Northern Kentucky Independent District Health Department. Involved with HIV/AIDS work since 1982, Dan served as an AIDS prevention specialist for AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati. An ordained minister in the state of Ohio, Newman is a volunteer for the Women’s Crisis Center of Northern Kentucky.

Freshmen Peyton Houchens and Mary Alice Stewart said they both enjoyed the guest speaker.

“He talked about sex problems that can happen,” said Houchens. “He was blunt and straight to the point about things teens just need to know.”

“I liked going around to all the booths,” said Stewart. “They answered questions you can’t normally ask.”

Both students said they found the booths about stress and drugs helpful and informative. The girls said they were glad the students were separated into groups of boys or girls for the event.

“It makes it more comfortable,” said Houchens.

The event was sponsored by Mason County Extension Office, Buffalo Trace Area Health Department, Meadowview Regional Medical Clinic, the Family Resource Center, and MCHS nurse Angie Boone.

Fritz said next year organizers hope to make the event available to each grade at MCHS.

Kevin Jack, youth minister at the Maysville Church of Nazarene, concluded the annual event with a coeducational talk.

“Today’s right choices equal tomorrow’s success,” said Jack.

Jack said he hoped students would use the information they learned to make a difference in their decisions.

“They need to make the right choices now in order to be where they want to be later in life,” said Jack.

Study finds 1 in 5 obese among 4-year-olds

BY LINDSEY TANNER, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • APRIL 7, 2009

CHICAGO (AP) — A striking new study says almost 1 in 5 American 4-year-olds is obese, and the rate is alarmingly higher among American Indian children, with nearly a third of them obese. Researchers were surprised to see differences by race at so early an age.

Overall, more than half a million 4-year-olds are obese, the study suggests. Obesity is more common in Hispanic and black youngsters, too, but the disparity is most startling in American Indians, whose rate is almost double that of whites.
The lead author said that rate is worrisome among children so young, even in a population at higher risk for obesity because of other health problems and economic disadvantages.
“The magnitude of these differences was larger than we expected, and it is surprising to see differences by racial groups present so early in childhood,” said Sarah Anderson, an Ohio State University public health researcher. She conducted the research with Temple University’s Dr. Robert Whitaker.
Dr. Glenn Flores, a pediatrics and public health professor at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, said the research is an important contribution to studies documenting racial and ethnic disparities in children’s weight.
“The cumulative evidence is alarming because within just a few decades, America will become a ‘minority majority’ nation,” he said. Without interventions, the next generation “will be at very high risk” for heart disease, high blood pressure, cancers, joint diseases and other problems connected with obesity, said Flores, who was not involved in the new research.
The study is an analysis of nationally representative height and weight data on 8,550 preschoolers born in 2001. Children were measured in their homes and were part of a study conducted by the government’s National Center for Education Statistics. The results appear in Monday’s Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Almost 13 percent of Asian children were obese, along with 16 percent of whites, almost 21 percent of blacks, 22 percent of Hispanics, and 31 percent of American Indians.

School programs keep students on the move

Julie Deardorff |
April 5, 2009

Kids these days, they just can’t seem to sit in their chairs. Nor should they have to, say some innovative educators, who believe that movement and exercise help prime the brain for learning.

Emerging research suggests that incorporating physical movement in the classroom improves student focus and attention. As a result, teachers are trying everything from standing desks to exercise stability balls instead of chairs. Those who keep chairs often encourage two- or three-minute bursts of fitness in the classroom during the day.

“Before we grade papers, we’ll get the kids up and circling the perimeter of the classroom,” said Claire Henderson, a 5th-grade teacher in a Chicago suburb, whose students don’t have a recess period. “It might be for less than two minutes, but it helps them redirect their focus and gives them more energy.”

“Circling,” which could happen in her class four times a day, doesn’t just involve walking. Henderson might challenge them by saying, “If your birthday is the same number as 4 times 6, sit down at another classmate’s desk.” The new desk offers a different perspective; Henderson, meanwhile, can see who needs work on their multiplication tables.

The national PE4life program, which the suburban Naperville schools have been using for years, encourages using fitness tools such as heart-rate monitors. And students at six Chicago public schools might play hula hoop math, exercise tag or jump rope bingo in the classroom thanks to a program provided by the Consortium to Lower Childhood Obesity in Chicago Children.

“We immediately see a powerful impact on behavior,” said Dr. John Ratey, a psychiatrist at Harvard University who believes exercise is the best tool we have to optimize our brain function. Even simple “deskersize programs” such as jumping jacks can produce a drop in disciplinary problems, he said.

jdeardorff@tribune.com

Bardstown, Daviess, Owensboro schools recognized for health practices

By Rich Suwanski, Messenger-Inquirer
Published: Saturday, April 4, 2009 12:02 AM CDT

The Daviess County and Owensboro public school systems have been recognized by the National School Boards Association Health Web site for their “promising practices” in the health and well-being of their students.

The NSBA Web site highlighted 17 school systems nationally for their creativity, including three in Kentucky. The third system was Bardstown City Schools.

DCPS is in the fifth year of a five-year plan to institute a comprehensive program.

The program includes health and physical education; health and nutrition services; counseling, psychological and social services; and a healthy environment and staff with family and community involvement.

“It took six months and a lot of committee and subcommittee meetings to write this plan,” said Renee Del Pico, DCPS health coordinator. “It worked because we had great leadership from a lot of people and we continued meeting to keep people involved over the years.

“Now that we’re at the end of the five-year plan, we ask, do we want to go on? We do. We want to expand on this.”

OPS was recognized for its after-school and Saturday sports instructional league, a low-cost, high-participation endeavor that included not only students, but faculty, staff and parental volunteers.

“The league is making a positive impact on the health of the students,” said Julie Ellis, director of public relations for OPS. “We’re pleased we were selected for other school districts to look at as a model.”

The league is for students in third through sixth grades. On a budget of about $5,000, OPS has set up five-week sports seasons for basketball, volleyball, cross country and track and field. This spring, OPS will include baseball and softball.

Students get school T-shirts as team uniforms while most equipment is donated. Over the course of the year, about 1,000 students participate.

“Our three objectives are student participation, teaching fundamentals and having fun,” said Brad Stanley, OPS assistant superintendent. “We’re getting kids learning sports they haven’t played before with parents and grandparents coming out and watching.

“The stands at Owensboro Middle School were full for basketball, but it was low-stress. There was no hollering at the refs or kids, so the kids enjoyed it more.”

At DCPS, its plan included building walking trails at elementary schools, increased assistance in dealing with student mental health and drug issues plus a suicide prevention program, free elementary school breakfasts to promote healthier eating and stocking vending machines with healthier snacks, among other things.

Both school systems also tipped their caps to Owensboro Medical Health System for its assistance.

The schools were recognized at www.nsba.org.

Rich Suwanski, 691-7315, rsuwanski@messenger-inquirer.com

Physically Fit Kids Do Better In School

ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2009) — A new study in the Journal of School Health found that physically fit kids scored better on standardized math and English tests than their less fit peers.

Researchers examined the relationship between physical fitness and academic achievement in a racially and economically diverse urban public school district of children enrolled in grades 4 – 8 during the 2004 – 2005 academic year.

Results of their study show that there is a significant relationship between students’ academic achievement and physical fitness. The odds of passing both standardized math and English tests increased as the number of fitness tests passed increased, even when controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, and socio-economic status.

School time and resources are often diverted from Physical Education and opportunities for physical activity such as recess. However, this study shows that students who do well on fitness tests also do well on math and English standardized tests.

“For families and schools, these results suggest investments of time and resources in physical activity and fitness training may not detract from academic achievement in core subjects, and, may even be beneficial,” the authors conclude.

“If this is not feasible because of safety issues, then a school-wide assembly containing a brief bout of physical activity is a possible way to begin each day,” she said. “Some schools are using the Intranet or internal TV channels to broadcast physical activity sessions that can be completed in each classroom.”

Among Castelli’s other recommendations for school personnel interested in integrating physical activity into the curriculum:
scheduling outdoor recess as a part of each school day;
offering formal physical education 150 minutes per week at the elementary level, 225 minutes at the secondary level;
encouraging classroom teachers to integrate physical activity into learning.
An example of how physical movement could be introduced into an actual lesson would be “when reading poetry (about nature or the change of seasons), students could act like falling leaves,” she said.

The U. of I. study appears in the current issue of the journal Neuroscience. Along with Castelli and Hillman, co-authors are U. of I. psychology professor Art Kramer and kinesiology and community health graduate student Mathew Pontifex and undergraduate Lauren Raine.

Physical Activity May Strengthen Children’s Ability To Pay Attention

ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2009) — As school districts across the nation revamped curricula to meet requirements of the federal “No Child Left Behind” Act, opportunities for children to be physically active during the school day diminished significantly.

Future mandates, however, might be better served by taking into account findings from a University of Illinois study suggesting the academic benefits of physical education classes, recess periods and after-school exercise programs. The research, led by Charles Hillman, a professor of kinesiology and community health and the director of the Neurocognitive Kinesiology Laboratory at Illinois, suggests that physical activity may increase students’ cognitive control – or ability to pay attention – and also result in better performance on academic achievement tests.

“The goal of the study was to see if a single acute bout of moderate exercise – walking – was beneficial for cognitive function in a period of time afterward,” Hillman said. “This question has been asked before by our lab and others, in young adults and older adults, but it’s never been asked in children. That’s why it’s an important question.”

For each of three testing criteria, researchers noted a positive outcome linking physical activity, attention and academic achievement.
Study participants were 9-year-olds (eight girls, 12 boys) who performed a series of stimulus-discrimination tests known as flanker tasks, to assess their inhibitory control.

On one day, students were tested following a 20-minute resting period; on another day, after a 20-minute session walking on a treadmill. Students were shown congruent and incongruent stimuli on a screen and asked to push a button to respond to incongruencies. During the testing, students were outfitted with an electrode cap to measure electroencephalographic (EEG) activity.

“What we found is that following the acute bout of walking, children performed better on the flanker task,” Hillman said. “They had a higher rate of accuracy, especially when the task was more difficult. Along with that behavioral effect, we also found that there were changes in their event-related brain potentials (ERPs) – in these neuroelectric signals that are a covert measure of attentional resource allocation.”
One aspect of the neuroelectric activity of particular interest to researchers is a measure referred to as the P3 potential. Hillman said the amplitude of the potential relates to the allocation of attentional resources.
“What we found in this particular study is, following acute bouts of walking, children had a larger P3 amplitude, suggesting that they are better able to allocate attentional resources, and this effect is greater in the more difficult conditions of the flanker test, suggesting that when the environment is more noisy – visual noise in this case – kids are better able to gate out that noise and selectively attend to the correct stimulus and act upon it.”

In an effort to see how performance on such tests relates to actual classroom learning, researchers next administered an academic achievement test. The test measured performance in three areas: reading, spelling and math.
Again, the researchers noted better test results following exercise.
“And when we assessed it, the effect was largest in reading comprehension,” Hillman said. In fact, he said, “If you go by the guidelines set forth by the Wide Range Achievement Test, the increase in reading comprehension following exercise equated to approximately a full grade level.
“Thus, the exercise effect on achievement is not statistically significant, but a meaningful difference.”

Hillman said he’s not sure why the students’ performance on the spelling and math portions of the test didn’t show as much of an improvement as did reading comprehension, but suspects it may be related to design of the experiment. Students were tested on reading comprehension first, leading him to speculate that too much time may have elapsed between the physical activity and the testing period for those subjects.

“Future attempts will definitely look at the timing,” he said. Subsequent testing also will introduce other forms of physical-activity testing.
“Treadmills are great,” Hillman said. “But kids don’t walk on treadmills, so it’s not an externally valid form of exercise for most children. We currently have an ongoing project that is looking at treadmill walking at the same intensity relative to a Wii Fit game – which is a way in which kids really do exercise.”
Still, given the preliminary study’s positive outcomes on the flanker task, ERP data and academic testing, study co-author Darla Castelli believes these early findings could be used to inform useful curricular changes.

“Modifications are very easy to integrate,” Castelli said. For example, she recommends that schools make outside playground facilities accessible before and after school.

It’s not your father’s school lunch anymore

By BARBARA GOLDMAN, Staff Writer

Thursday, March 5, 2009 1:54 AM EST
The school lunch tray isn’t what it used to be; in fact it’s just gotten better.

Mason County School District cafeterias are offering more options for students than ever before. Students now have a choice in items offered for both breakfast and lunch. But one thing about the cafeteria options hasn’t changed — the price remains the same at $1.60 per day.

According to Mason County Schools Food Service Director Delores Dugan, the goal of the change has been to offer better service to customers, in this case students. Mason County Assistant Superintendent Kelly Middleton spearheaded the project and involved school principals, students and cafeteria staff.

“It’s centered around offering more choices for our children,” said Middleton.

Administrators visited the top districts in the state to see the differences and possibilities for school meals. Taste tests were set up by Dugan and schools polled students to see just what it was they wanted in their cafeteria meals.

Mason County Intermediate School set up a wiki to ask students “Besides changes in the food, what other ways can you think of to make the cafeteria more appealing to students? What do you think about offering choice at lunch? What other changes can we make to improve our school lunches?”

MCIS student Megan Huber answered the question, “I think it would be awesome to have a choice of food. We can choose our food so that we can eat what we want instead of what we get. I am glad you’re thinking about it because some kids don’t like some of the food we get on our trays so some kids don’t eat their lunch.”

MCIS student Karey Conley said, “I think it would be cool if you could have choice so that kids could pick what they wanted so that they wouldn’t be forced to eat what the cafeteria had to offer.”

After listening to what the students wanted, changes were made.

“We’re offering choices of all kinds. Each school is offering different choices,” said Dugan.

Instead of just choosing from one option or a salad, students at the high school, middle school and intermediate school now have a hot or cold option. If they choose the cold option, they can select either a sub sandwich meal with a deli sub on a hoagie bun with a selection of fresh fruit, veggie and baked chips or a chef salad with ham, turkey and cheese. If they choose the hot line, they may pick from two hot entree choices or a grilled cheese sandwich. At the end of the line, students choose from different cups of Jell-O, flavored and colored applesauce, fresh cereal, trail mix and oranges or apples.

Straub Elementary School students will begin to see changes next week. High school students also have a new soup bar where they choose from two soups and chilli.

“No price has changed but there will be some items sold ala carte,” said MCIS cafeteria manager Debbie Orme.

Students will be offered items like baked chips, yogurt, bottled water, juice and a healthy choice kids mix. These items are available to students already getting a school lunch or bringing their lunch from home.

Mason County High School cafeteria manager Mary May said, “They’ve been excited about more choices. It’s easier as we get used to it.”

Dugan, who has been with Mason County Schools for 45 years, said it’s been wonderful seeing both the students and staff being pleased with the changes.

The items are portioned and cupped ahead of time for quick pick-up including the hot vegetables served with meals.

“Our cooks like it. It’s easier serving. The kids really like it. That’s the main thing. It’s great all the way around,” said Orme.

Simple changes have worked hand in hand with the larger changes. Orme said she has enjoyed hearing students comment on things they’re doing differently as simple as cutting oranges in a fanned shape. She said one student loved the new way the oranges were cut because they no longer squirted them in the eye when they tried to eat them.

“They really like the variety of choices,” said Orme.

May said she has also enjoyed hearing the students’ comments.

“They say it’s super,” said May. “I heard one say that this is an experience.”

Breakfast has also changed. Instead of eggs and toast, students can choose from alternate items like cereal and fruit.

“All of the meals are well balanced with federal and state regulations,” said Dugan. “We want to make sure the food is delicious and healthy for the students in the Mason County School System.

MCIS added the option of a sub sandwich or salad Wednesday. Dugan said students had no trouble with the change but simply fell into the new routine and it was a “big success.”

“This is changing everything,” said Dugan who added that less students are bringing their lunch since the changes were made. “Everybody is taken care of.”

Orme said the salad and sandwich options have gone over well at MCIS. Students had the salad option prior to the change but had to order it the day before. This has simplified things.

“There are lots of pick-up items,” said Orme. “This has enabled me to take a cook off of each line. I have one in a line now and the others are free to do prep or help with additional tasks.”

For an additional 35 cents high school students may also have iced tea.

“They love the iced tea,” said May. “They love the choices. They can have whatever they want and they love it.”

To view MCIS lunch question wiki and answers go to https://www.masoncoschools.net/groups/stanfieldmatt/wiki/90804/School_Lunches.html.

Contact Barbara Goldman at barbara.goldman@lee.net or call 606-564-9091, ext. 274.

LaRue schools committed to tobacco-free campus

 Local district is one of three in the state with similar policy
The LaRue County schools are leading the way in the state in limiting tobacco use.

The local school district is only one of three districts that has committed to being tobacco free, 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week.

By being tobacco free 24/7 the districts are making a commitment that the staff, students and visitors do not use tobacco products inside board owned buildings, vehicles or on school property and during school-related trips.

LaRue Schools Superintendent Sam Sanders said that he did not know until recently that so few districts in the state were tobacco free but that he believes the policy is a positive for the school system.

“Anything we can do to keep our students from picking up on the habit is a step in the right direction,” he said.

Looking at the research on youth who start smoking at an early age shows some alarming statistics.

“If kids start smoking in their teen years, then almost 75 percent are hooked on tobacco,” he said.

The LaRue schools passed the 24:7 Tobacco Free Schools about two years ago, he said. At that time they already had a pretty strict policy in place. So, it was just natural for the district to move on to the 24:7 policy.

Currently, LaRue, Boyd and Franklin Independent are the only schools in the state that have adopted tobacco free policies.

Research shows that tobacco-free environments cut back on the number of youth who use these products, according to information shared at a recent Tobacco Free Schools community forum in Frankfort. The research came from the 2005 North Carolina Youth Tobacco Survey. It showed that school districts with TFS policies had 40 percent fewer student smokers than those who do not have the policies.

Sanders was asked to participate on a panel discussing the program and its effect on the local school district.

For now Sanders said that he does not have any official results of the impact that the policy has had on the local students.

“I would anticipate that we will have fewer kids who get hooked on smoking,” he said. “It is possible that even our workforce will miss fewer days.”

Though the policy is strict, Sanders said, there really hasn’t been a lot of complaining from the staff or from visitors to the school. In the beginning he did hear some family members of students and the general public complain about not being able to smoke at sporting events but that has dissipated now.

Since the policy has been in place the schools have not dealt with a lot of violators either, Sanders said.

“Most of the feedback has been positive,” he said. “It sends a strong message.”

That message is starting out with the younger children who are more impressionable, he said.

A few times while he has been walking around at football games some younger children have approached him to tell him that he needs to go over to a certain area because someone is smoking a cigarette.

Finding a smoker on any of the campuses has only happened two or three times to him personally, the superintendent said. When it did happen he just reminded the smoker that the system has tobacco-free campuses.

The superintendent attributes the kids’ familiarity with tobacco issues in part to former LaRue County Health Educator Fran Cox. Cox, who retired recently, visited elementary schools and talked about the harmful effects of tobacco.

“Fran has been effective on the front end,” he said, “getting into the first, second and third grades.”

Another important partner in the tobacco free campus is the LaRue County Agency for Substance Abuse Policy (ASAP), which helped the local school program by providing signage for the football field and the stickers to put up on all the properties.

A grant from ASAP also provides a school resource officer who patrols at football games and sometimes might find someone violating the policy, he said.

The ASAP has provided a detector, which was placed in the restrooms. The detector sounds an audible alarm, if someone even as much as lights a lighter.

“It was a collaboration with the school system,” said Sherri Corriveau, board coordinator of ASAP.

 “Any time you have a community that has a norm of not smoking, you are sending a message. You are showing that not only them (the students) but also the adults not using tobacco products says that we don’t condone use.

 “We want our youth to be healthy and happy and tobacco use can keep that from happening.”

Health Education News

Health Education, taught by a certified health education teacher, is the school’s instructional program that provides the opportunity for all students to understand and practice concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention.

Health Education component promotes:

• Access to valid health information and health promotion products and services
• The practice of health enhancing behaviors and reduction of health risks
• The ability to analyze the influence of culture, media, technology, and other factors on health
• The use of interpersonal communication skills to enhance health
• The use of goal setting and decision making skills
• Advocacy for personal, family, and community health.

Goal: Develop students’ commitment to life-long health through a school/community which values and promotes interdisciplinary, sequential, skill-based health education.

Today, health status is determined more by one’s own behaviors than by advances in medical technology, availability of health services, or other factors; and research demonstrates education in schools can make a difference in the health-related behaviors of students.

The Health Education program promotes behaviors that contribute to a healthful lifestyle and improved quality of life for all students. The Health Education curriculum, when fully integrated, supports and reinforces the goals and objectives of its two major components health and physical education. When the concepts of these two areas are integrated, learning is enhanced to its maximum.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• Sequential, Prek - 12, coordinated teaching of health, physical education, and family and consumer sciences

• Assessment of risks, consideration of consequences, and making healthy decisions

• Communication of health information

• Acknowledgment of similarities and differences to create a safe and supportive environment

• Collaboration among components to strengthen the coordinated school health program