New Albany-Plain Local Schools create a healthier district one small step at a time

“They don’t have to take it or they can take one of everything out there,” Charles says. “It gives them a chance to try something new that they’ve never had before.”

She hopes to create a similar fruit and veggie station for the middle and high school students soon. Both groups eat in the middle school gymnasium building. Currently, at each lunch line, students are reminded to “please take two” fruits or vegetables, but many pick mashed potatoes and prepackaged fruit cups over fresh items.

Charles and the rest of the food service workers are constantly working on new, healthful recipes to add to the menu, but offering better choices means nothing if the students won’t eat them. Recently, they’ve begun holding tasting events for the students. The new recipes tested there – spicy sweet potato and garlicky baked butternut squash – were a hit with all but a handful of students and have since been added to the school menu.

Middle School Wellness

Three days a week, about 70 sixththrough eighth-graders arrive more than an hour before their classes begin to work out during Zero Period Fitness. The idea comes from the book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John J. Ratey, and is run by teacher volunteers, including wellness teacher Jim Joseph. Ratey’s book focuses on a similar program at a school in Naperville, Ill. and describes the benefits that students experienced after joining – including improved test scores.

“It changes their whole mind frame when they walk out of here,” Joseph says of the program. “They’re focused and they’re ready to go into their math class or their history class.”

Sixth-grader Hari Ramesh says he thought Zero Period would be a good way to train for football. “I decided to join because I wanted to get healthier and get in shape for football and for other stuff, and it gets me pumped up for my classes and makes me smarter,” Hari says. “I love it. It’s become a part of my life.”

The middle school wellness teachers, along with Assistant Principal Steve Gehlert, have been spearheading an effort to improve the overall wellness of the district. The group gathers regularly to discuss new state curriculum standards and ways it can reach out to elementary and high school health and wellness teachers. One goal group members are united on: exposing students to many types of physical activity, not just sports.

“We try finding things for kids that they enjoy and offer different activities … that they can do for a lifetime,” says Mindy Bittner, wellness department chair.

And wellness in New Albany schools means more than just educating students about fitness and nutrition.

“One thing that’s impressed me (about New Albany), when you come here and you experience wellness, it’s not your