State schools chief stresses need to improve students' health
Schools must address students' health needs to improve their academic performance, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell told education officials Thursday in San Bernardino.
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Schools must address students' health needs to improve their academic performance, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell told education officials Thursday in San Bernardino. "Students who come to school in good physical shape, who come to school well rested, who come to school well fed, perform better," O'Connell told about two dozen district superintendents and county school officials. O'Connell came to the quarterly meeting of district superintendents in San Bernardino County to talk about upcoming training sessions for Inland school districts on improving students' health. Story continues below Twelve districts from Riverside and San Bernardino counties will participate in a series of workshops that will begin in March. The teams from each district will analyze their services and how well they fit together as part of the Coordinated School Health Leadership Institute. The American Cancer Society and California Department of Education have helped organize similar events in four other counties, using a model developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With districts facing the possibility of mid-year funding cuts, organizers said they hope to help districts become more efficient in delivering services using their resources. "With the state budget cuts and No Child Left Behind mandates, we certainly don't want to put another responsibility on the plate of districts and their staffs," said Kathy Estes, who coordinates school health programs for the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Office. A comprehensive approach to school health is particularly important in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, which have high rates of poverty, teen pregnancy and gang violence, said Kim Clark, an associate professor of health sciences at Cal State San Bernardino and coordinator of the university's school health-education program. Nutrition and physical education are what most people focus on when considering school health, but other services are important for students as well, Clark said. Among the elements the teams will review in the upcoming workshops are counseling and psychological services, the school environment and health promotion efforts for staff. Reach Shirin Parsavand at 951-368-9645 or sparsavand@PE.com Inland Events EVENTS MOVIES VENUES DINING Select a tab above to search in that category Submit an event Advanced search Calendar (function() { // EDIT HERE: partner calendar base URL, search URL template, // number of days to display var partner = 'http://events.pe.com/'; var searchUrl = partner + 'search?swhat=&swhen={day}&st=event'; var nDays = 5; var dayNames = [ 'Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday' ]; var monthNames = [ 'January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December' ]; var todayClass = ' ZventsDayButtonToday'; var today = new Date( (new Date).setHours( 0, 0