Stafford School District earns Governor’s HealthySchool Award

As a result of its efforts to help students make healthy choices, the Stafford School District (USD 349) has earned Governor Kathleen Sebelius’ HealthySchool Award.

The district will receive the honor tomorrow and is the 11th Kansas school district to earn this recognition, which is part of the HealthyKansas initiative.

“Making healthy choices early helps lead to a longer, healthier life.  The teachers, administrators and staff of Stafford’s schools have demonstrated great leadership in encouraging students to choose to eat healthier, exercise more and avoid tobacco,” said Sebelius.

The recognition ceremony will be Thursday, December 7 at 10:30 a.m. in the Stafford Middle/High School gym, located at 430 East Broadway in Stafford.

Roderick L. Bremby, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, will attend the ceremony and present the school district with Certificate of Recognition and a HealthyKansas flag for each of the district’s buildings.

“Stafford was an early adopter of the Coordinated School Health Program and has demonstrated great leadership and initiative by building health education and lifelong physical activity into their school culture and community,” Bremby said.

In addition to its work to earn the HealthySchool Award, the district has also implemented the following health initiatives during the past three years:

• Implementing a tobacco-free policy for the district;
• Providing students in kindergarten through 9th grade with 100-150 minutes of physical activity each week;
• Organizing a high school bike club to encourage physical activity (bikes were obtained from the Ellsworth Correctional Facility bike program and helmets were purchased through Safe Kids Kansas);
• Holding staff in-services to address physical activity and nutrition support;
• Providing students in first through ninth grades with bottles of ice water at their desks;
• Making it so that more than 75 percent of school district fundraising activities do not involve the sale of food or beverages; and
• Creating a district Health Committee to establish nutrition guidelines for meals and vending machines, including five contact hours of nutrition education for all students.

HealthyKansas is focused on encouraging children in schools, adults in the workplace and seniors in their community to make simple, but powerful lifestyle changes, including:

• Increasing physical activity to 30 minutes a day, five to six times each week;
• Eating healthy, including eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily; and
• Avoiding tobacco use.

Governor Sebelius launched the HealthyKansas initiative in November 2004 as a comprehensive effort to control health care costs, improve the quality of health care and raise awareness of the dangers of obesity in children and adults.

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