Shreveport-Bossier Personal Training

Reprinted from the Shreveport Times: By Ashley Northington • adnorthington@gannett.com • April 7, 2008

“Kindergarten students at Mooretown Elementary School waved their arms and kicked their legs emulating moves that Taebo guru Billy Blanks demonstrated through the television set.

Since Friday’s rainy weather prevented the class of 17 from walking a trail outside or playing a ball game, the youngsters were content watching the eight-minute video. Afterward, they split into teams and raced around orange safety cones. Later, they jumped rope.

“We won’t stop exercising, but we couldn’t do it outside because of the rain,” said Cynthia Jacobs, physical education teacher at Mooretown Elementary. “I’ve been working them out and had them exercising since day one.”

The school is focused on getting students to live healthy lifestyles, as part of Caddo public schools’ “Wings to Wellness” initiatives. The wellness program gives points to schools that promote healthy behavior, eating and other habits so the schools can earn “Wellness Wings” at year’s end. On Wednesday, Mooretown will host the Wings to Wellness Health Fair, the school’s first ever health fair.

Today, the school system will host a Fitness Meet at Lee Hedges Stadium in Shreveport. In coming weeks, several outdoor 4-H activities and a Kid Fun Run will be held. All the activities are held in conjunction with Caddo’s health initiatives.

“We want everybody to do things that are better for their wellness,” said Kaye Cochran, wellness coordinator for Caddo schools. “We have to make sure they’re doing things to make them stronger and healthier. I know we’re on the right track, and we’re doing the right things.”

Caddo, Bossier and other parishes adopted wellness policies to ensure that all schools were promoting healthy initiatives.

In Caddo, schools that do the most things to get wellness points will be given special recognition. To celebrate their promotion of healthy-living, a special program will be held in May.

“We’ve got to look at this as a whole-school approach,” Cochran said. “If you’re healthy, then they’ll be in a better position to academically improve. If we can get these kids to come to school and feel good then they’ll do better. I think there is a direct correlation between how healthy they are and how well they do.”

Cochran and others say it is important to target younger students so they can develop healthy lifestyles and curb childhood obesity cases.

We are having so many problems with obesity in our children,” Jacobs said. “This way they can be introduced to some things they may want to do for life.”

While the district doesn’t keep a record of how many overweight students it has, 650 students were tested last year to determine their body mass index. Many of those students were obese or at-risk for obesity, said Deborah Harris, director of child nutrition for Caddo.

The school system offers nutritious meals, according to federal guidelines. Schools limit the amount of sweets elementary students can purchase during lunch and some schools have opted to eliminate sodas and candy from vending machines.

Harris said the Child Nutrition Program is looking at offering obese children more fruits and vegetables to fill their stomachs.

School nurses are provided at some schools. Some even have in-school health clinics as an extra-step to keep students healthy.

“We may offer them more vegetables and fruit because we want to make sure that what is being offered is nutritious and is something they’ll eat,” Harris said. “Children aren’t obese because of what is served in schools, it’s because our children’s lifestyles are not active.”

The wellness policy promotes activity during class lessons and lots of movement throughout the day in effort to keep kids moving.

Faculty and staff are even encouraged to get fit. At Mooretown, some teachers get together on Mondays to exercise, Jacobs said.

“It’s so important for our kids to get started early so they can develop a healthy lifestyle,” said Mooretown Elementary Principal Melvin Ashley. “This is a build up for them to take these habits into adulthood. We are even trying to get the parents involved so they can be healthy too. This is our focus.” Hopefully, everybody will jump on board.”