FORT SILL, Okla. (Oct. 2, 2014) -- Geronimo Road Elementary School here received national recognition Sept. 12 in Washington, D.C., for the school staff's achievment under the Alliance for Healthier Generations, Healthy Schools Challenge.
The school received the National Healthy Schools Bronze Award, demonstrating that it has met the required criteria for that level.
Last year, Brenda Spencer-Ragland, Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation director, approached the school's staff about joining the Alliance for Healthier Generations, a program that would complement the Healthy Base Initiative program already in effect here.
"All I had to do was ask Geronimo, they jumped right on it," Spencer-Ragland said. "They are the only Healthy Base Initiative site to be recognized and the first military installation to receive this award."
In 2013, Healthy Base Initiative was launched on 11 military installations including Fort Sill. One of the goals of the project was to look at the physical activity levels and nutritional standards in the child development centers on post and implement changes that would positively impact the overall health of the children.
As Fort Sill began implementing changes, officials reached out to the schools in Lawton to carry forward these changes, since many of the children at the centers would be transitioning into the schools at some point.
The Geronimo school staff stepped up to the challenge and began making changes based on six different modules within the healthier generations criteria: snacks and beverages, breakfast and lunch, health education, physical education, physical activity and employee wellness.
Sarah Breeze, physical education teacher at the school, went through the school's policies and focused on where they were lacking. She coordinated with Lawton Public Schools, Geronimo Road principal, Mikel Shanklin, and Fort Sill on healthier menu choices for breakfast and lunch, and increased physical activity during gym class and recess. She also recommended adding 40 minutes of health education each week, and encouraged the teachers and staff to support the new program. This was a schoolwide and a postwide effort.
"I'm glad I work in a school where the teachers, the staff, the parents and the kids were more than happy to do what it took. I was the one who turned in the paperwork. I wasn't the one who made all the changes, it took all of us. I was so proud. We are a family here, we help each other out and we have each other's backs," Breeze said.
These changes will continue to carry forward as the school's staff works toward reaching the silver and gold levels.
"With bronze, you only had to do a piece of each of them (the six modules), with gold it's going to be a whole lot more. We're going to have to do everything, and it's going to have to involve everyone, from staff, to food service, to kids, to parents ... we're all in this together." said Breeze Spencer-Ragland said she, "fully expects them to go gold, and with the new school opening in 2015 there will be over 1,000 students participating in this challenge. This program will make a huge impact on those students and their families."
This sentiment was echoed by Breeze and Shanklin.
"I think we'll take it further than the initiative ... it's what we do at the school every single day that forms habits. One thing that is special about this school being on a military base is these kids are going to travel the world. They're going to go to place that we teachers never will, but if they take one thing away from here -- it's that our school at Geronimo Road was healthy, and that's what I love," said Breeze.
"This was a goal the whole school was involved in. We are looking foward to making the changes to make silver, and then onto gold," said Shanklin.
With the new school having such a large student population, Shanklin believes that one of the biggest challenges will be meeting the requirements for total physical activity with so few hours in the day.
"But, we are going to be creative and come up with different ways that the teachers can add that time within the classroom, getting the children up moving around in between different subjects and classes," she said.
New changes to the federal guidelines for all food, snacks and beverages consumed or sold within the schools will help support the school's mission to reach gold.
"We are hoping the children will learn that being healthy and fit is very important and to cut back on the cupcakes and cakes, and parties with candy. We will help the parents by putting together a cookbook of recipes that are healthy for students. There are cupcakes, cakes and brownies that you leave out all the bad ingredients and we will provide those for the parents. We're going to help them at each step," said Shanklin.
Breeze said the Alliance for Healthier Generations has partnered with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) making it easy to include Geronimo Road Elementary School into the Fort Sill Healthy Base Initiative.
"When Fort Sill officials came (to us) for the Healthy Base Initiative, they also wanted us to do the USDA Healthy School Challenge and now they (the healthy school challenge and healthy base initiative) have combined it, so if you make bronze with the Alliance for Healthier Generations you automatically meet the USDA criteria," said Breeze.
She added this partnership between programs should impact the entire Lawton-Fort Sill community.
Spencer-Ragland said that partnering with Geronimo Road complements Fort Sill and the Healthy Base Initiative because of the school's willingness to make the changes.
"They are blessed to have such a quality staff, who are very responsive to the challenge," she said.
While Geronimo Road Elementary School prepares to reach gold, Spencer-Ragland said she would like to see all 17 schools within the local district participate and apply for recognition next year.
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