Flu clinic well attended
We had a good turn-out for our annual school flu vaccine clinic on Nov. 1. Many thanks to the Health Department and the team of volunteers that assisted to keep things running smoothly! We hope everyone enjoyed the nice Thanksgiving break as we have lots of studies to complete before our winter break in a few short weeks.
We hope to share more health tips with you more often in the months to come. You may have noticed extra pages added to our school website. There are even more pages per campus. The nurses are working on their individual pages and will share with you any new things happening on their campus, and also general health updates.
After the first of the year, each campus will participate in the School Health Index for the Wellness Advisory Committee. This is a state-mandated committee designed to help the schools follow the state regulations on nutrition and physical activity. There are several guidelines that have to be followed and the Index helps the committee to see if we are following those standards. This will be the 8th year Arkansas has been using the indexes. They are updated and designed to fit primary and secondary schools in alignment with the Department of Education regulations.
There have been numer- ous changes and strides taken over these years to improve lunch menus, increase physical activity time, promote health and nutrition in several areas throughout the district; by course and culturally as well. Health and wellness can be used in the common core curriculum in science, social studies and literacy etc. Periodically you may see some handouts coming home with students in the Intermediate level called Nutrition Nuggets. They are geared for family activities and healthy eating. Also available to parents, from the nurses’ offices are vaccine information and brochures on various health conditions. We will be bringing you news on the vaccine changes for the fall of 2013 and what you will need to do to get your student up to date with state law. You are always welcome to contact the school nurses with concerns or questions and visit the website for new news!
••• Editor’s note: Val Colburn is a registered nurse, employeed by the Pea Ridge schools as the school nurse supervisor and is stationed at Pea Ridge Intermediate School.