Two Schools to Pilot New Health Initiative

February 2, 2010

HUNTINGTON — Two Cabell County schools will take part in a new state health initiative as part of a pilot program.

Superintendent William Smith and Dee Cockrille, executive director for the Regional Educational Service Agency II, said the announcement that Cabell County had been chosen was made Tuesday in Charleston, a few hours before the evening Board of Education meeting.

Cockrille said after the schools are identified, a group of health stakeholders will be brought together to help establish support for th e Coordinated School Health Program, which kicks off in April.

Components include health and physical education; nutrition, health, counseling and psychological services; healthy school environment; school staff wellness and family community involvement.
West Virginia schools will follow the Mariner Model, a widely used program that provides a step-by-step systems-building process by which schools and communities can develop capacity and create infrastructure that supports improvement in health-promoting environments for children.

According to an abstract from the American School Health Association, the Mariner Model follows a public health program planning development model that is consistent with theories of systems change and supported in school health as well as school reform literature. The manual provides several action steps, including gaining commitment from stakeholders, identifying issues from a local perspective, determining goals and objectives, developing an action plan, facilitating implementation and program assessment.

Sites that have used the Mariner Model reported that it reduced barriers to learning, increased readiness to learn and provided opportunities for school success for all students.

The school board also plans to invite Sen. Bob Plymale, D-Wayne, to its Feb. 19 meeting to have an open discussion about the possible future of a meat packing facility for Cabell Midland High School. Board members said they thought they had closed the book the idea in 2009 after monetary goals were not met by various parties. But board member Mary Alice Freeman said she has heard that local legislators are trying to find money to finish the project, which dates back to about seven years.

The board was led to a conversation about the meat packing facility because a transfer of nearly $150,000 was on the agenda to come from that account. The transfer was tabled until the board gets clarification on any pending legislative action. Board members were told the $150,000 would not drain the account, and the money would be used for a vocational agriculture program that is severely underfunded.