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This page will soon feature a link to the Maria Mitchell Elementary School parent handbook.
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<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place><st1:PlaceName>Maria</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName>Mitchell</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName>Elementary School</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> Nov 2004 Nomination Narrative<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
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1. Describe your school.<o:p></o:p>
Our school is comprised on 330 children from Early Childhood (4 years old) through 5th grade. Roughly 84% of our children are Hispanic, about 13% are African American, and we also have children who are white, Asian, European, or Native American. About 92% of our children are eligible for free school meals and about 5% receive partial assistance for school meals.<o:p></o:p>
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2. Do your student face any special health issues?<o:p></o:p>
Yes. Our neighborhood, the Cole Neighborhood in <st1:City><st1:place>Denver</st1:place></st1:City>, has a well documented history of lead poisoning and obesity in children. Our neighborhood also sees an elevated rate of children with respiratory infections and asthma. (Our school participated in a study by Dr. Nathan Rabinovitch, a researcher and allergist at the National Jewish Medical and <st1:place><st1:PlaceName>Research</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType>Center</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>, to monitor student’s asthma.) A large number of our students and their parents are overweight and their eating habits are not healthy. Fast food, “Hot Cheetos” and soda are staples of many diets; and, we believe, the hours of passive television viewing at home is high.<o:p></o:p>
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3. Describe your school’s commitment to fostering the physical health of students.<o:p></o:p>
All of our children walk to and from school or are driven by an adult. In February 2002, two of our children were abducted while walking home from school. We used this incident to encourage more parents to walk with their children to and from school for safety and health. After months of organizing and training, we established a Walking School Bus program (WSB). WSB is led by two neighborhood residents – one Hispanic, the other African American – and a community volunteer from <st1:City><st1:place>Denver</st1:place></st1:City> Healthy People 2010. They coordinate approximately 12 WSB parent volunteers who walk an average of 75 children to and from school each day.<o:p></o:p>
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4. Describe your physical education program.<o:p></o:p>
We utilize an integrated Arts approach in which our physical education program includes dance and dramatics. Students stage a monthly dance program that is collaboratively created with the help of children, classroom teachers, “specials” teachers, and community volunteers. The productions are lively and often include age-appropriate cardiovascular and/or aerobic maneuvers. All children, from 4 years old thru 5th grade, receive regular physical education that includes conditioning, coordination, skills, and endurance. Literacy is interwoven into the Arts classes to provide children with six-hours of coordinated instruction each day.<o:p></o:p>
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5. Why do you think your school deserves the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Kids Walking Challenge award?<o:p></o:p>
We – meaning our staff, administration, students, parents, and community – have collaboratively looked for and developed ways to address health and wellness issues in our students and their parents. On state tests, our children continue to score below what we know they can do. However, they seem to perform admirably well on projects that are meaningful to them – such as writing contests or project/theme based activities. We find that activities such as a Kids Walking Challenge are a fun way to help our children focus their efforts on challenging, and interesting lessons that integrate health, literacy, and math.<o:p></o:p>
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6. If you are selected as an award winner, would you commit to having your students collectively walk 100 miles? (Anthem will provide each school with 100 pedometers to count and tract the miles.) Would you put in place a plan to track and account for these miles?<o:p></o:p>
Yes. I do believe our children and parents already walk 100 miles (such as with WSB) but we have no way of tracking this. The pedometers might help motivate them and inspire a healthy competitive spirit around walking and exercise. We might easily track miles by having parents sign in each day noting the children they escort to and/or from school. Children would be excited to chart and then graph progress toward the 100 mile goal.<o:p></o:p>
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7. What would you do with your $1,000 grant award?<o:p></o:p>
These funds will be used to provide a small incentive to the non-parent community coordinators of WSB. The incentive might be in the form of food coupons redeemable at a local grocery for food only. We have, in the past, worked with a local store to provide parent volunteers with coupons that are not transferable and can only be used for food items.<o:p></o:p>
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