CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Attitudes are slowing changing toward better nutrition and fitness here, according to Andrea Lockerby, coordinated school health director for Bradley County Schools.
Lockerby reported to county school board members Thursday on efforts to place more emphasis on health and fitness.
County schools Director Johnny McDaniel said healthy eating was a major topic for staff development this year. There are more fresh fruit and vegetables on school menus, he said, including a new salad bar at Bradley Central High School.
“We continue to concentrate on making our schools a healthy place for kids,” McDaniel said.
Lockerby said a growing list of national studies links child health to improved learning.
“The good news is for our body mass index scores; we improved our numbers of students in the healthy weight range by 1.1 percent,” she said.
“That may sound like a small number but it’s an important number. And I have to say the state of Tennessee has done the same thing. So we are seeing changes.”
There were 56,000 school nurse visits last year in Bradley County Schools, but 49,000 of those ended with students going back to class, Lockerby said.
But there’s a lot of work still to do to help students become fit, she said.
The county’s scores on the 1-mile run are below the 50 percent statewide average for completion. Tests on the mile run are given in the second, fourth, eighth and ninth grades.
“We are not looking at athletics but health,” Lockerby said. “It’s not, ‘Are you running fast enough to be an athlete?’ but, ‘Are you running fast enough to be in a healthy zone?'”
High blood pressure at a young age, she said, could indicate heart disease later in life.
Board member Christy Critchfield said the county schools system needs to fund a full-time nurse at each school. Some schools now go for days without a nurse, she said.
“We need to make it clear, we do not have full-time nurses at every school,” Critchfield said.
Nutrition awareness at home remains a concern, said board member Richard Baker.
“We are doing fantastically at school, but at home, we are not,” he said.
That makes it even more important, Lockerby said, that the next generations grow up to be more aware of the food on their tables.