Skretta's Scintillating Salutations

The conference was held November 29 and 30 in Washington, DC. It was sponsored by the Partnership For A Healthier America and I spoke in the Healthy Schools strand on behalf of the Alliance For A Healthier Generation.  Comments: I am John Skretta, Norris superintendent.  To give you some idea of our context so you know where I'm coming from, we are a district of over 2,000 students in southeast Nebraska just south of our capitol city, Lincoln.  We are a consolidated district that draws from numerous surrounding small towns, and we are growing in student enrollment every year.  We are a combination rural and suburban district. Our demographics are that we have 15% free and reduced lunch participation and we have 10% special education. Like a lot of schools, we have seen an increase in those numbers in recent years. To our district, in the context of our discussion today, one of the most important thing for schools to do is realize that students' health and also the wellbe...

There are many ways and many resources, but here are some external resources I’ve found helpful and hope you do, too: http://www.education.ne.gov/HEALTH/PDFs/CSHPolicy3-1-10.pdf The Nebraska statewide Coordinated School Health Policy, adopted March, 2010 http://healthylincoln.org/#resources.html Partnership For A Healthy Lincoln offers resources including national and local trend data on the obesity epidemic. http://www.letsmove.gov/schools Action steps from the Let’s Move! campaign to assist schools. http://sss.mpls.k12.mn.us/sites/6c9fd336-96c5-451c-a8a6-b6f00373668d/uploads/appendixF_celebrations_alternatives.pdf Healthy alternatives to the traditional ‘junk food as reward’ classroom celebrations offered by the CT Department of Education. http://www.ahealthieramerica.org/chefs-move-to-schools.html Information from the Partnership for a Healthier America about the Chefs Move! To Schools campaign to place visiting chefs in schools to help educate children about healthy eatin...

[I testified at Legislative hearing 2-10-11 in favor of the bill because I believe it would further Coordinated School Health. NDE, NCSA, School Boards' Association were neutral.  Dr. Karla Lester of Teach A Kid To Fish, Dr. Bob Rauner, and others also testified in support, representing NE Dietitians and American Heart Association and others. Text of my testimony today.] Good afternoon, Senators, distinguished committee members, my name is John Skretta and that is spelled J-O-H-N S-K-R-E-T-T-A. I am testifying in support of LB 125. I am a doctor but in the interest of total disclosure, I confess I am not a medical doctor but merely a doc of Education so I'll leave the dispensing of actual medical advice to Rauner and Lester and those inescapable pharmaceutical ads on TV! I am the Superintendent of the Norris School District . As an administrator at Norris, I have had the privilege to promote our schools’ attempts to deliberately integrate physical activity during the stud...