Last week we sent out emails to those we felt were key stakeholders to the bill. We emailed Senator Peterson, but at this time haven't heard back. We contacted a Physical Education teacher, Kate Tynes about the importance of physical education in a school curriculum. She emailed back stating she was very interested in this matter and would love to view our blog. We haven't heard back with any comments, although we asked her to just comment on the blog itself. Shirley Schantz, the Nursing Education Director of the National Association of School Nurses, she responded giving us a hyperlink, http://www.nasn.org/Default.aspx?tabid=594, to view resources provided by NASN on childhood obesity. We contacted Sallie Strickler, chairwoman of the Harrisonburg Public School Board and this is how she responded:
"Thanks for contacting me regarding the issue of childhood obesity and the school system.
Several years ago when I was a candidate for the board, one of my concerns was and continues to be the amount of exercise children get in school. I want to clarify that the school board does not develop curriculum but does give guidance to what we would like to have offered by the schools. The assistant superintendent, Dr. Mike Loso, is responsible for curriculum development.
For the current school year, the board gave a direction to increase the amount of time children spend in "specials", (art, music, PE and library). While the goal of that direction was to increase the frequency, the duration was increased. This did add to the total minutes a student was in specials each week, it did not increase the frequency as desired. The staff reported to the board their concerns that the duration is now too long so the principals were adjusting the time back to a shorter duration.
As I go to the schools, I continue to be concerned about the number of overweight students. I will continue to advocate for increased frequency of exercise for students. Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.
Sallie"
We emailed Lynn Alexander, a Physical Education teacher; William Howell, the speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates; Mike Loso, Assistant Superintendent for Harrisonburg public schools. We are waiting on replies and as soon as we get those we will post them.
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That is wonderful that the chairwoman of the Harrisonburg Public School Board responded to your email. As a future nurse, I noticed that obesity is a huge issue in Harrisonburg schools. I find it interesting that the board increased the total minutes a student was in specials each week but the staff reported this duration to be too long. Then it was changed back to the original duration. How does the schools expect to low obesity rates when the staff complains about the duration of time in physical education?
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