More schools could offer program
Posted on Friday, March 16, 2007
A pilot health program that started last school year at Elkins Elementary School could expand to other smalltown schools next year.
Brett Stone, Elkins Elementary physical education instructor, and Dr. Mark Lovell, a pediatrician from Springdale, supervised the "I CAN"program during the spring 2006 semester at Elkins. I CAN is an acronym for Integrated Change Activity and Nutrition.
During the program last year, Stone and Lovell met once a week with volunteer students and their parents. The program, which had 58 fifth-grade students, emphasized healthy eating habits and increased physical activity.
Stone said it will be opened first to fourth grade this time, then fifth- and sixth-graders if necessary.
During the pilot session, students were given a health assessment before and after their participation to track their progress.
"I thought it went well at our school," Robert Allen, Elkins superintendent, said.
"Overall, we got some positive results," Stone said. "The main thing was as the children's health and nutritional knowledge went up, their level of fitness went up as well."
Encouraged by the results, Stone wants to expand the program to other schools in the Boston Mountain Educational Cooperative.
The cooperative's membership includes six school districts in Washington County - Elkins, Greenland, West Fork, Farmington, Prairie Grove and Lincoln - plus Pea Ridge in Benton County, John Selph, co-op director, said.
Stone is in the process of setting up meetings with the various schools about the program. He has visited a couple already and hopes to complete the visits by April.
Because of the nine-week length of the program and the relatively short time remaining in this school year, the program will likely start in August at schools that approve participation, Stone said.
"Each school will decide to do it or not," Selph said.
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