Turning Your Vision of a Healthy School into a Reality

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Turning Your Vision of a Healthy School into a
Reality

• John Eisley
• Principal, Manchester High School
• Will Story
• Health Educator, Washtenaw County Public Health

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Outline

• Healthy Eating and Physical Activity in Michigan
  Schools
• Using the School Health Index to Create Healthy
  Schools
• Manchester School System
• Exercise How to Use the Healthy School Action
  Tool

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Ripped From the Headlines
Kids diets may promote weight gain. Study
Restricting diets may lead to binge
eating. Newsweek October 6, 2003
Number of overweight kids doubles. Study shows
US children at risk for serious health
problems. Newsweek August 5, 2003
Helping kids get fit communities are finding
new ways for youngsters to trim down and tone
up. Newsweek, September 22, 2003
Make school meals healthier! Kids need more
fruits and vegetables. Newsweek October 8, 2003
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Children and Adolescents At Risk
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Nutrition in Children and Adolescents

• Approximately 22 of male and 19 of female teens
  meet the minimum average daily goal of at least 5
  servings of vegetables and fruits

• Only 2 of children (2-19 years) meet the Food
  Guide Pyramid recommendations for a healthy diet

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Physical Activity in Children and Adolescents

• 1 out of 3 students do not receive the
  recommended amount of both moderate and vigorous
  physical activity during the week
• Black students were twice as likely as white
  students to not participate in moderate or
  vigorous physical activity during the previous
  week
• Daily participation in physical education class
  dropped from 42 in 1991 to 25 in 1995

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Michigan High School Trends
(MI YRBS, 2001)
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Michigan High School Trends

• 18 of students eat 5 or more servings of fruits
  and vegetables per day
• 40 of students drink 1 or more cans of soda pop
  per day

• 34 of students do not participate in the
  recommended amount of weekly physical activity
• 35 of students watch 3 or more hours of TV per
  day

(MI YRBS, 2001)
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Local Trends Overweight

• Good news
• Overall decrease
• 6 to 11 year age group
• Bad news
• Teen overweight increases

Based on 2000 Health Improvement Plan of
Washtenaw County
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Local Trends Physical Activity in Adolescents
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62.1
Based on 2000 Health Improvement Plan of
Washtenaw County
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School Environment Trends

• Local data based on Physical Activity and Healthy
  Eating Asset Survey, April 2003
• Questions based on CDCs School Health Index for
  Physical Activity Healthy Eating
• 53 of 114 schools in WC returned a survey (46
  response rate)

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School Environment Trends

• Junk food accessibility
• Nationally
• 26.3 elementary, 62 Middle/JRHS, 94.9 HS
  (2001) students have access to vending machines
  at school
• 26.8 elementary, 39.4 Middle/JRHS, 59.3 HS
  have school store, canteen or snack bar
• Washtenaw County
• 18 of elementary schools, 25 of middle schools,
  and 69 of high schools allow the sale of junk
  foods at school
• 29 of schools have policies regarding
  availability of low fat foods in school

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School Environment Trends

• Curriculum
• Locally, only 14 of schools teach all 18 healthy
  eating curriculum topics recommended by the
  School Health Index
• Milk Consumption
• Nationally, student milk consumption has
  decreased 40 since 1977
• Locally, 91 of schools offer either low-fat or
  skim milk in their school meals

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Other trends. . .

• Food consumption
• Increased serving sizes, availability of
  convenience foods, more meals eaten away from
  home
• School related food trends
• Decreased participation in healthy school meals
• Increase of competitive foods to support food
  service programs
• Inadequate space and meal periods
• Walking to school
• Only 13 students walk or bike to school, down
  from 66 in 1970

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Why Should My School Focus on Health?

• Good health is necessary for effective learning
• Healthy students become healthy, productive
  citizens
• Disease prevention is more cost-effective than
  treatment
• The school system is the one place where most
  youth can be addressed

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What Can My School Do?

• The overall goal of healthy students of all
  shapes and sizes may be realized when students
  receive consistent messages and support for
• Self respect
• Respect for others
• Healthy eating
• Physical activity

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Role of MI Schools in Promoting Healthy Weight

• Create a safe supportive learning environment
• Create an environment where students can be
  physically active
• Create a healthy nutrition environment
• Increase student participation in physical
  education
• Strengthen nutrition education
• Work with families to promote physical activity
  and healthy eating

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How Can We Turn Our Vision of a Healthy School
Into a Reality?

• MDE-Mini-Grant
• THE ROLE OF MICHIGAN SCHOOLS IN PROMOTING HEALTHY
  WEIGHT

• Committee met four times between November 3rd
  through January 8th
• Ten hours of direct committee meeting time
• Facilitated by the Washtenaw County Public Health
  Department

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The School Health Index (SHI)

• Developed by the Centers for Disease Control and
  Prevention as an assessment tool to measure
  strengths and identify areas for improvement
• Incorporated the knowledge of diverse team from
  the Manchester school system to identify what the
  school needs and what would work
• Guided Manchester to choose practices that have
  been proven to work

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School Health Index Recommended Steps to Meet
Goals

• Created a District-Wide (K-12) Health Team (SHI
  Committee)
• Complete the Assessment
• Determine your strengths and weaknesses
• Formulate an action plan
• Focus on policy change

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The SHI Committee at Manchester

• Chris Kanta Community Resource Center
• Dan Schulte High School Senior
• Donna Clark High School Family/Consumer Science
  Teacher
• Gay Thatcher Middle School Science and Fitness
  Teacher
• Hollie Janowicz High School Special Education
  Teacher
• John Eisley High School Principal
• Karen Tobias High School Food Services
  Coordinator
• Laura Billetdeaux Parent
• Ron Jansen High School Health/P.E.
• Sandy Sheets Elementary School P.E.
• Sarah Henderson High School Senior
• Sarah Jedele Student Teacher, Elementary P.E.
• Wes Gall High School P.E.

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School Health Index Assesses 8 Different Modules
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Creating an Action Plan

• After completing the assessment create a list of
  strengths and weaknesses.
• Based on the weaknesses, create a list of
  recommended actions.
• List the steps needed to accomplish the
  recommended action
• Identify each recommendation as a low or high
  priority
• SHI Committee agrees on 3-5 recommendations to
  begin implementing, dates for completion are set

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SHI _at_ Manchester

• A list of 29 recommendations were made from all 8
  modules
• Each member of the SHI Committee voted for their
  top 3 recommendations
• The votes were tallied and a list of 7
  recommendations was agreed upon as possible to
  implement before June 2004

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SHI _at_ Manchester

• In order of votes, from greatest to least, the
  final recommendations were (Number of votes
  received in RED)
• Suggest and recommend to school board to offer
  physical activity on a regular basis (8)
• Create a district wide health committee with
  regular meeting dates (5)
• Research and inform school board about current PE
  requirements and desired PE requirements with
  special attention to the MS level (5)

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SHI _at_ Manchester

• Recommend to school board that all ES and MS PE
  teachers have a major or minor in PE (4)
• Communicate to parents via after school programs,
  newsletters, etc. about health education (3)
• Survey students on healthy choices they would
  like to see in the cafeteria (3)
• Ensure healthy food is available to all kids at
  both first and second lunch (3)

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SHI _at_ Manchester

• 3 of the recommendations were combined into 1
  recommendation
• Make the following recommendations to the school
  board
• Daily physical activity opportunities to
  students, revise P.E. program/curriculum and P.E.
  options (special attention to Middle School
  level), and all P.E. teachers have a degree with
  a major or minor in P.E.

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SHI _at_ Manchester

• As a result of the final recommendations, 4
  sub-committees were formed from the SHI
  Committee
• School Board Presentation sub-committee
• Recruiting and organizing district wide health
  committee
• Parent communication and newsletter sub-committee
• Healthy food options/student survey sub-committee

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SHI _at_ Manchester

• The first priority was to form a District-Wide
  Health Committee to begin working on the other
  recommendations
• The final Health Committee will have
  representatives from
• all three school buildings
• student representation from the high school
• parents
• administration

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SHI _at_ Manchester

• Since the completion of the SHI
• School Board Meeting, March 15, 2004
• WCPH and SHI Committee members presented on
  obesity and committee findings and
  recommendations
• At this school board meeting we received the
  blessing and approval for our District-Wide Heath
  Committee
• MHS Wellness Program Hollie Janowicz
• Judy Ivan Grant Shape Down curriculum for at
  risk students

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Judy Ivan Grant

• Alternative Choices helping youth make healthy
  eating and fitness decisions
• High School Breakfast Program (Nutritional
  Cart/Bar)
• Walking Club (Fitness Component)
• Target population of at-risk students (Change
  poor nutritional habits as well as daily
  exercise)
• Pre and Post test

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SHI _at_ Manchester

• What the future holds
• One sub-committee will present a plan for P.E.
  and desired teaching qualifications of P.E.
  teachers
• A District wide health committee proposal will be
  brought before the board as well as curriculum
  council for approval
• Alternative Choices Class
• Make other recommendations to our curriculum
  council/school board

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Healthy School Action Tool (HSAT)
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Where Did HSAT Come From?

• HSAT is based on
• A consensus paper titled The Role of Michigan
  Schools in promoting a Healthy Weight, a
  statewide response to the weight crisis
• National and State data

• It is a combination of
• School Health Index (CDC)
• Changing the Scene (Team Nutrition)

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HSAT Content

• On-site Coordinator Instructions
• 8 Modules (Same as SHI)
• Planning Section

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Module Content

• Introduction paragraph
• Module questions
• Module Score Card
• Planning for action section
• Strengths
• creating action steps
• prioritizing action steps

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Introduction of Module
Module 7 Health Promotion for Staff School
staff members can be important role models for
students related to physical activity, healthy
eating and a tobacco-free lifestyle. Offering
support and encouragement for teachers to eat
healthy, be physically active and adopt a
tobacco-free lifestyle is important to help them
model healthy behaviors and be an active part of
a healthy school environment. 
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Module Questions
7.1 School Health Promotion for Staff q    Check
here if none of the below apply to your school.
(0 pts) 7.1 Check yes for each program your
school or district offers to staff members at
least once per year. If the program is offered
at no cost to employees and/or offered at school,
check the box in the column at the right.
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Module Questions
Scoring Each check mark is scored as 1 point.
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Module Score Card
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Planning For Action
Think about the topic areas covered in Module 7.
What are strengths of your school in these areas?
List up to three in this box.
 
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Creating Action Steps

• Team generates action steps based on module
  specific answers.
• Up to five action steps are created.
• They are recorded in a chart.

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Prioritize Action Steps
Use the 3 point scale to identify barriers and
prioritize team actions.

• Cost
• Time
• Support
• Importance

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Ranking Action Steps

• Add the points for each row.
• Low points possible low priority
• High points possible high priority

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Ranking Action Steps
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Useful Web Resources

• http//www.mihealthtools.org/schools
  Downloadable HSAT
• http//www.udim.org United Dairy Industry of
  Michigan nutrition education resources
• http//www.emc.cmich.edu MI Model Coordinators,
  Healthy Weight Paper, Other Resources.
• http//www.michiganfitness.org Walk to School
  Day, EPEC, Physical Activity, Other Resources
• http//www.cdc.gov school health index, obesity
  maps, coordinated school health programs .
• http//www.tn.fcs.msue.msu.edu Michigan Team
  Nutrition
• http//www.fns.usda.gov/tn Team Nutrition
• http//www.actionforhealthykids.org Michigan
  Action For Healthy Kids

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Resources

• 2003 HIP school survey data
• Washtenaw County HIP survey (2000)
• Michigan Team Nutrition Website HSAT
  Presentation
• www.msue.msu.edu/fnh/tn/
• The Role of Michigan Schools in Promoting Healthy
  Weight
• www.emc.cmich.edu/healthyweight

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Thanks to

• Nicholas Drzal, MPH, RD
• State of Michigan
• Department of Education
• National Education Consultant
• drzaln_at_michigan.gov
• Jillian Thomas
• Washtenaw County Public Health
• thomasj_at_ewashtenaw.org