A cowbell — that’s what my mother used to call us to dinner after an afternoon (and, sometimes, early evening) of play.  Bent, rusted, big, and loud, it rang from the back stoop, beckoning my brothers and me from the backyard or from an even more wild and wonderful place behind our house: a place we called,  simply, “The Lot.”

The Lot was a weedy…..well, a weedy mess, really. It was the drain field for the subdivision behind us. And I’m sure it was filled with ticks and chiggers and poison ivy and snakes. And, of course, we loved it. We played baseball there in the summer, and when it rained a great deal, as it tended to do sometimes in St. Louis, The Lot would fill up with water and become a lake. (Probably a dirty, germ-laden, storm sewer of a lake, but a “lake,” nonetheless.)

I thought about “The Lot” today as I read a news release from the Alliance for Children on the importance of free play — both at home and at school — and its central role in fighting a childhood obesity epidemic that has become a cause célèbre for Michelle Obama and many advocacy groups, including NSBA.

“We’re delighted that Michelle Obama has taken up this issue as her major focus as First Lady,” said Joan Almon, the Alliance’s executive director. “Efforts to reverse the obesity epidemic have until now focused almost entirely on nutrition and physical activity with disappointing results. The missing ingredient in this recipe is play — good, old-fashioned, child-initiated play, the kind that used to keep children moving and active for hours each day.”
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This past weekend was one for the record books for us in Washington, D.C. — a snow storm socked us with more than 20 inches of snow. Many of us are from colder areas (Pittsburgh, for me), but we’ve been here so long that we’ve acclimated to snow-less winters.

Schools and offices are closed all over the Washington, D.C., metro area and beyond. While we’ve been trying to come up with names for the big storm (Snowpocolypse, Snowmaggaden, and Snowtorious B.I.G.), yet another storm is fixing to dump yet another 10 to 20 inches on us.

For the snowbound, this is a perfect time to catch up on reading — and ASBJ.com offers plenty of useful and thought-provoking articles to keep you occupied as the snow piles up. Read what schools can and can’t learn from business in our February issue. Also, find out how administrators and school leaders are coping with the stress of the down economy.

While you’re in an information-gathering mode, register for a free webinar on how to move your district into the next generation. ASBJ is partnering with Cisco on this webinar, which will be at 2 p.m. ET on Feb. 25 and will feature a seven-step process on how to assess where you are now and how to get where you need to go.  Go here to register.

Social networking? Then follow us on Twitter for updates, insights, and other items for school leaders and anyone interested in education.  Are you on Facebook? Become a fan of ASBJ here.

Interested in federal education policy and legislation? Read our coverage of NSBA’s Leadershiop and Federal Relations Network conferences at School Board News Today.

Happy reading — Spring will be here, soon.

Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor

In recognition of all the hard work she put into making Christmas a festive and memorable occasion (and the fact that she was completely spent from the effort), my girlfriend’s husband and children rewarded her with breakfast in bed the next day.

Having a meal delivered to you while you lounge in the comfort of your comforter, is a rare and special treat as an adult. Which is probably why, the idea of serving breakfast in the classroom has taken off as a way to make sure students are well nourished and ready to learn.

Research on the importance of breakfast to boost performance, mental and physical, is voluminous and undisputed. And if you read my cover story in the January edition of ASBJ, you’ll learn that school districts are increasingly implementing a universal breakfast program to boost participation rates.

But offering a free breakfast to every child, which is what the program does, doesn’t necessarily mean every student will take it. There are logistical details like bus schedules, adequate staffing, and, of course, increased food prep to be worked out. 
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Photo courtesy Stockvault

Today marked the day of our office’s annual cookie exchange. Shortbread, pecan sandies, and thumbprint cookies piped with chocolate hazelnut or eggnog filling; it’s not a gathering for counting calories, but for counting blessings and good friends to share it with, year after year.

Similiar holiday traditions no doubt are practiced in your schools and offices … or maybe not, as recent policies have put focus on health promotion and stemming childhood obesity.

Many of you already know and may have been part of creating wellness policies for your district a few years back, a requirement built into the 2004 Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act.

Other than developing physical activity and nutrition goals, in concert with the public, school systems were given wide lattitude on how to implement and ultimately illustrate wellness in their community. 

For a primer, check out our archives for our special report “Getting to Wellness.”
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Today we thank the men and women who serve our country in peacetime and in war.  Veteran’s Day originally was Armistice Day — the official end of World War I and was meant to honor the veterans of that war.

The holiday has since been broadened to include all veterans, including those serving in the current war, now in its sixth year.

The Iraq war has taken a toll on the children of these men and women, and schools around country, espeically those near military bases, have stepped in. Read our May 2008 articles on schools helping children cope with long deployments and the other stresses they face.

Photo courtesy of Stockvault

We’re all feeling more financial stress these days—whether it’s loss of a job or other income, mounting bills and floundering home prices, or just seeing other family and friends deal with the economic downturn. It’s no surprise that our stress is rubbing off on our kids–and psychologists and pediatricians are warning that can have significant consequences.

New results from an annual survey by the American Psychological Association—appropriately called “Stress in America”–show that kids “absolutely” feel their parents’ stress, and parents don’t always know that their children are picking up on it.

The APA reports that teenagers and tweens (children ages 8-12) were more likely than parents to say that their stress had increased in the last year.

Forty-five percent of teens ages 13-17 said that they worried more this year, but not all of their parents were aware of that, as only 28 percent of parents reported that their teen’s stress increased, according to the survey.

A quarter, 26 percent, of tweens said they worried more this year, but only 17 percent of parents believed their tween’s stress had increased. And while only 2-5 percent of parents rated their child’s stress as “extreme,” 14 percent of tweens and 28 percent of teens said that they worry a lot or a great deal, the APA reports.
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Photo courtesy Stockvault

It was front page news: NYC is banning that old-time, tried and true school fundraiser— the bake sale. The decision has drawn mixed emotions.

From school staff saying the policy is pointless and takes away yet another opportunity for struggling schools to make money, to public health officials saying its a good sign of districts committment to promoting a healthy lifestyle among children and adults, there has been a range of reactions.

But surprise shouldn’t be one of them.

Photo courtesy of Stockvault

Driven by the 2004 Child Nutrition  and WIC Reauthorization Act, all school systems were supposed to adopt a wellness policy the summer of 2005, which (depending on the enthusiasm of the district) could include all manner of things from exercise and nutrition to creating a healthy environment from the top down. Read our comprehensive ASBJ special report, Getting to Wellness, to get all of the details.

While NYC isn’t the first school system to take on such traditions as bake sales, they are largest to do so. But let’s face it, no matter a large city or a small community, attempts to put regulations or limits on food will always engender controversy, as one health expert told me.

“We are a very food-oriented country, we reward and punish with food,” says Ev Beliveau, the former nutrition and education director for the School Nutrition Association. “In certain parts of the country it is going to be difficult; if you don’t clean your plate, you are being disrespectful.”

But hopefully as more reports come out supporting the need to curb childhood obesity and, in general, the need to focus on prevention in order to cut soaring healthcare costs, those attitudes will change.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor

The nation’s struggling economy might just have revealed the solution to childhood obesity concerns: Make kids walk to school. It’s still too early to tell whether this hypothesis will prove true. But we’ll find out: More and more students will be walking to school this fall.

The economy is behind this promising shift in public health policy. As school budgets shrink in today’s economy, local school officials are cutting school bus routes and limiting bus service to students who live more than two miles from school.

Memphis is a perfect example. According to the city’s local newspaper, the Commercial Appeal, the Memphis Public Schools system has cut 40 percent of its school bus routes, spread bus stops farther apart, and told older students to start hoofing it this fall.

That’ll save the school system $6.5 million a year. But I wonder whether it’ll also lead to slimmer-if a bit sweatier-students showing up at school each day. We might be talking about a lot of pounds here. The Commercial Appeal reports the number of students riding a school bus dropped 5 percent nationally last year. By my estimates, that’s about 1.3 million kids.

So let’s do the math: If 1.3 million students start walking 2 miles a day, and if that burns off about 200 calories, that’s 260 million calories. If it takes 3,500 calories to burn off a pound of fat, then walking to school will burn off 37 tons a day. That’s the equivalent of walking off more than 1,800 40-pound kindergarteners.
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Who is going to identify potential swine flu cases in your schools this fall? Who is going to segregate sick children until a parent takes them home? If schools are asked to serve as a site for the immunization of children, who will serve as a liaison with public health officials?

The logical answer: your school nurses-if you still have any left on the payroll.

School nurses are still around. But they’re spread thin, a common victim of budget cuts made by school boards and central offices as they struggle to protect classroom instruction.

So what does that mean if a flu outbreak hits your school system? You might want to take a look. According to a new USA Today analysis, “each school nurse cares, on average, for 971 students. In 13 states, the ratio is more than 2,000 to 1.”

And those figures are an improvement over a 2007 survey by the National Association of School Nurses. It concluded the ratio was 1,151 per student. Is this a crisis? Is there a shortage of school nurses that will endanger children if the flu strikes your school system?

Not necessarily. While more school nurses certainly would improve health care services in your schools, observant teachers, administrators, and office secretaries can spot those kids who don’t feel well. A call to a parent—who, hopefully, will be diligent about seeking needed medical care for his or her child— will ensure that most flu cases are properly treated.
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Most new mothers I’ve met recently confess that they cried more than their babies when they got their first shots. I have to admit, as much as I didn’t like it, either, I felt relief that my son had some protection.

There’s growing evidence, though, that more parents are sending their children to school without all the recommended vaccinations, or even homeschooling their children, because for various reasons they don’t want to vaccinate or don’t have access to health care.

Aside from the fear that vaccines may cause autism, which has so far been unfounded, there’s a concern that not all vaccines are necessary, possibly because some parents believe ailments such as measles and rubella have been eradicated.

But many of these easily preventable diseases may be making a comeback. The Los Angeles Times recently reported that vaccine exemptions in California schools have more than doubled in less than a decade, leaving thousands of children unprotected.

USA Today reported that cases of whooping cough have been increasing in recent years because parents do not vaccinate their children.

Vaccinating all children is crucial to creating “herd immunity” for the entire community, including newborns who are too young to be immunized, Sean O’Leary, an infectious-disease fellow at Children’s Hospital in Denver, told USA Today.

Joseph A. Bocchini Jr., MD, FAAP, chairperson of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ National Committee on Infectious Diseases, notes that the San Diego area recently saw a measles outbreak that likely came from outside the United States and spread among unvaccinated children.
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