Clinton Schools Focus on Living Healthy

A group of Clinton Park teachers are hoping their students will do as they do, not just as they say. It’s part of a district-wide push to promote proper diet, exercise habits and healthy living. At the beginning of the semester, 45 teachers kicked off a weight-loss competition, with some signing up to lose weight and others to give moral support. To date, they’ve lost more than 140 pounds.

The teachers meet after school to walk, do yoga, aerobics and other exercises. They weigh in every week, to see who has lost the highest percentage of body weight. The competition will end on March 11, the Friday before Spring Break, with the winner taking home cash, a six-month membership at the Baptist Healthplex, gift certificates and other prizes.
It’s a contest Clinton Park Principal Suzanne Hollingshead hopes will show the students a fun way to eat right and exercise regularly, to improve their overall health.

There are community-based health councils at each school, and also a council on the district level with representatives from each school’s council as well as parents, teachers and district officials. The district’s health council met Thursday, and during the meeting, Brittany Hammons, dietetic intern at the University of Southern Mississippi, presented ways that schools and parents could improve the diet and exercise habits of children.

She suggested that parents:
• Eat at the dinner table in the evenings.
• Don’t reward children with food.
• Play with their children, so both adults and children are exercising.
• Prepare meals in advance and freeze them to reheat later.
• Include fruit with meals.
• Get involved at their child’s school.

Clinton Public School District
Dr. Phil Burchfield, superintendent
(601) 924-7533 Media contact: Sandi Beason