The Importance of Being Well
Dear Employees, Students, and Parents:
We have started work on a comprehensive strategy across the district to improve the health of our entire community, starting with our employees, many of whom are teachers, and our students. You might ask why a school district should take on the issues of employee and student health. Here are the facts:
Healthy students perform better. Grades are up to 30 percent higher for students who are fit, and absenteeism and discipline problems both reduce as student health improves.
Healthy teachers teach better. They have more stamina (as much as double in the last two hour of each day) when they exercise each day. They make better decisions, make fewer mistakes and have more patience. In short, healthy teachers make better teachers.
Managing budget cuts from the state while still being the fastest growing school district in Colorado, means we have to find ways for our employees to get more done with less. Healthy employees are often as much as two or three times more productive than unhealthy employees.
Now put these facts together and imagine how our results will improve if we have healthy teachers, teaching healthy students, from healthy families, living in a healthy community.
We're aware that taking on community health may sound like it's outside of our mandate as a school district. However, all the data we've looked at shows a profound relationship between overall community health and student performance.
We're committed to producing healthy, well-educated and productive young adults who will drive the economic growth of our community. More than that, we think that our students can become the agents of healthful change within their families and within our community.
Our journey will be a long one, and will be filled with many challenges. In January we began working with Health at Work, a national firm of wellness experts, to create a plan for how we will make 27J a healthy place to live, learn and work.
We will look for support and assistance from all employees, from students, from their parents and from the wider community, as this is not a vision we can achieve alone. But it is one we must achieve if we're to continue to improve our results as a school district and if we're to produce a future generation of powerful, capable and healthy young adults ready for the workforce.
If you're interested in being involved in this adventure -- or would like more information -- please contact Sandy Altmann, saltmann@sd27j.org. We look forward to the possibilities.
Sincerely,
Dr. Rod L. Blunck
Superintendent
