01-30-03

Los Angeles Times

School Not Sweet on Junk Food


Toward meeting a state mandate, Balboa Middle joins other Ventura campuses in banning cafeteria sales of candy and soda.

By Fred Alvarez, Times Staff Writer

In the battle to beat addiction to soft drinks and snack foods on Ventura County campuses, students at Balboa Middle School are among the latest to be asked to quit cold turkey. Youngsters at the Ventura campus returned from winter break to a ban on candy, doughnut and soda sales at the cafeteria's vending machines and snack bar.

The move was meant to help the Ventura Unified School District meet a statewide mandate to eliminate fatty foods and sugary drinks from elementary and middle schools by year's end.

At a time when more than a quarter of California's public schoolchildren are overweight and nearly 40% are out of shape, it is also part of a larger campaign to help students develop healthier eating habits that will last a lifetime.

"We are facing an obesity epidemic; we are facing a diabetes epidemic; and we haven't been doing a good service to our kids," said Sandy VanHouten, director of child nutrition services for the Ventura district. "We just feel that we can't represent the best interests of student health if we are selling them things that aren't healthy."

The junk food ban already was in force at Ventura's three other middle schools. But for many of the 1,200 students at Balboa, the city's largest middle school, that didn't make their new sugar-free reality any easier to swallow.

"I think it's kind of dumb," said 13-year-old Melanie Ide, standing in a long lunch line recently with fellow eighth-grader Christian O'Leary. "Why should they take it away? We are old enough to make our own decisions."

School district officials across California say the issue isn't whether students are old enough to make choices, but whether they are being given good choices -- and the tools to make those choices -- to begin with.

To that end, school districts have been pumping up the nutritional value of items offered in cafeterias and snack bars. They also have been boosting educational efforts to drive home the idea that there is more to a balanced meal than a bag of chips and a Dr Pepper.

Part of that push has been spurred by legislation that will ban the sale of junk food and sodas on elementary campuses, and limit the sale of carbonated drinks at middle schools by the end of the year. The legislation, proposed by state Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier) and signed into law in 2001, also mandates that foods sold at elementary and middle schools meet certain nutritional requirements.

Even before the legislation came to pass, several California school districts had been waging their own junk food wars.

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted last year to outlaw soda sales at all schools, effective January 2004. The Oakland Unified School District enacted a similar policy in 2001.

In Orange County, Capistrano Unified and neighboring Newport-Mesa Unified began this academic year by eliminating soda pop and unhealthy snacks from school grounds.

In Ventura County, school leaders have been making similar inroads.

The Oxnard Elementary School District outlawed soft drinks and candy at its middle school campuses years ago. And in Thousand Oaks, the Conejo Valley Unified School District followed a ban last year on middle school candy sales with a prohibition earlier this month against soft drink sales during school hours.

Middle school students returned from winter break to find that the soda machines had been put on timers so that they now only work after hours and on weekends. Students still have available to them during school hours vending machines that dispense water, juices and sugar-free beverages.

Joe Cook, who is in charge of student nutrition for the Conejo Valley district, said he has even reduced the number of soda machines at the district's high schools, all in an effort to stem the sugar-loaded tide.

"In reality, the kids at the high school level can just leave campus, so we might not have much impact on them," Cook said. "But at the elementary and middle school age groups, we have time to model them, we have time to give them good food experiences, and we hope that has an impact years from now."

For many schools, however, the move toward healthier nutrition habits comes at a price. Schools rely on income from soda and snack food sales to fund everything from field trips to assemblies. And in this era of budget cuts, some view those sales as a sure way to provide a cash infusion.

It was those concerns that prompted the Pleasant Valley School District in Camarillo to hold off on removing soda machines from middle school campuses.

The district formed a Healthy Foods Committee earlier this academic year that has taken several steps toward curbing junk food intake, such as limiting the hours soft drinks are available. But the panel decided that until the new state law goes into effect next year, soda should be allowed at both of the intermediate schools.

Jan Maez, the district's chief business official, estimates that each school stands to lose more than $5,000 a year in soda sales when the tap finally runs dry. And while the new law promises increased funding to schools that develop healthier revenue sources, Maez is doubtful that the money will materialize in these tough budget times.

"I think our parent population would absolutely support healthier food choices," Maez said. "But they are also very cognizant of how difficult it is to raise funds and how their kids come home each day after enjoying the types of activities these funds support."

That is the same reason Balboa Middle School took so long to come around.

While junk food sales were outlawed at Ventura's three other middle schools at the start of the school year, officials at the east Ventura campus worried about the loss of income and delayed the move for several months.

Even now, with soda sales eliminated in the cafeteria, there are still some vending machines on campus that dispense soda. But those machines, which generate money for activities and supplies, are being locked down during lunch and nutrition breaks as part of the effort to curb soda intake.

Vice Principal Lane Jackson said the machines were the most popular on campus, bringing in as much as $3,500 a year to the school. Jackson said he now expects to lose half that revenue.

"I understand where they are coming from," said Jackson of those who want soft drinks to disappear altogether. "But it's not banned from school. Kids are still allowed to bring it onto campus, we're just banned from selling it to them. At some point I think you've really got to question what good we are doing."


02-07-03

San Diego Union-Tribune

Middle School Picked as Demonstration Site for AVID


ESCONDIDO ­p; Corpuscles, algebraic equations and grasslands in Florida were among the topics tackled in Laurie Livesay's AVID class one recent afternoon at Del Dios Middle School.

The 25 students in her class are learning more than math formulas and science facts: They are being groomed for college.

A number of students have seen their grades improve since they started AVID, which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. It is designed to offer extra academic and motivational help for at-risk and average students who may get lost in the shuffle.

Eric Alvarado, 12, raised his grade in math from a D to a B. Stephanie Medina, 13, was getting a D in science but now has a B.

"We have to work hard, but it's worth it," said Stephanie, who wants to study law.

Eric said the AVID class helps students catch up and understand problems they may have trouble with in other classes. "Sometimes if the teacher is going too fast (in other classes) you don't get it, but here, they can explain problems better and we can help each other."

Del Dios has done such a good job of turning underperforming middle-schoolers into confident, college-bound students that the school has been selected as a National Demonstration Site for AVID.

Mary Catherine Swanson, founder and executive director of AVID, said schools chosen as demonstration sites have proved their ability to implement the program and can serve as a model for other schools that want to start AVID.

"Teachers from all over the country come to San Diego all the time because they want to do AVID at their sites," said Swanson, who first introduced AVID at Clairemont High in 1980. "It's one thing to talk about it and another to see it in action."

AVID has 63 demonstration sites throughout California, including 21 in San Diego County. The middle-school through high-school program is used in more than 1,500 schools throughout the country.

Other demonstration sites include Carlsbad High School, San Marcos High School, Escondido's Orange Glen High School, Bernardo Heights Middle School in Rancho Bernardo and King Middle School in Oceanside.

At Del Dios, the program includes tutors from California State University San Marcos who help twice a week. Students also help each other tackle problems.

AVID, an elective class for seventh-and eighth-graders, includes lessons on writing, oral communication, vocabulary enrichment and career education.

Laurie Livesay, one of the AVID coordinators at Del Dios, said students are taught note-taking skills and essay writing to help them succeed in the rigorous college preparatory curriculum.

English is a second language for many Del Dios AVID students, but that is no impediment to college success.

When enrolling students in AVID, Livesay said, she looks for kids who have potential and determination but maybe not much support.

Many may be the first in their families to try to make it to college. Some may have self-esteem issues. Livesay said the program aims to change students' attitude of "I'm not going anywhere" to "Yes, I can do it."

One of founder Swanson's favorite success stories is that of an immigrant who came to San Diego after the Vietnam War. He spoke no English when he arrived, but ended up graduating from UCSD and eventually went to work at NASA.

The 100 students in the Del Dios AVID program may be fluent English speakers or limited-English speakers, and they may have different backgrounds ­p; but they show the desire and drive to do well in school and go on to college.

Eighth-graders Daniel French and Eric Moreno are in the afternoon AVID class taught by Ron Blok. "Does this look like Bush," asks Eric, who is working on a cartoon for the school newspaper.

The drawing, which bears a striking resemblance to the president, shows Bush cutting taxes with a guillotine for the benefit of big hotel owners.

Livesay said AVID's goal is to get students to a higher level of critical thinking to improve their chances of success in high school and college.

She proudly recalls some former students who have gone through the 8-year-old Del Dios AVID program. Several are at CSU San Marcos, others have gone into the engineering program at San Diego State University.

Daniel and Eric said AVID has been great for them, and their grades have improved. "We study for tests while playing games; it makes learning fun," Daniel said.

"You feel like you're with family here," said Eric. "Teachers will help you with problems from any class. It's pretty cool."


Los Angeles Times

February 4, 2003

Tragedy's Lessons Go to School


By Sandy Banks
Times Staff Writer

Seventeen years ago, fifth-grader Jennifer Kramer -- then an aspiring astronaut -- turned to her teacher for answers when her class watched in stunned horror as the space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing all seven crew members. What she learned only stoked her passion for science.

On Monday, Kramer -- now a middle-school teacher -- came to school wearing a blue NASA jacket and armed with newspapers, photographs and poems to help her seventh-graders understand both the majesty of the space shuttle Columbia's mission and the tragedy of its midair disintegration.

For Kramer and countless other teachers, Saturday's deadly Columbia disaster provided a valuable "teachable moment," an opportunity to use a real-life event to deliver unforgettable lessons in science, math, social studies and even life.

"It's chilling, but it's what made me want to be a teacher," said Kramer, who is in her third year at Lawrence Middle School in Chatsworth.

"This is a chance to make it count for something ... the stuff that makes teachers glad they went into teaching. It's what can make kids realize that life is happening all around them."

For many youngsters, the loss of the Columbia lacked the drama of the Challenger -- which carried a schoolteacher on board and vaporized on live television -- or the tragic implications of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

"This was not even close," said Brent Smiley, a history teacher at Lawrence. Those earlier tragedies left teachers battling their own emotions, while they struggled to interpret for stunned students the emerging images.

This time, although campus flags flew at half-staff and many schools observed a moment of silence, there was little of the grief and bewilderment that had gripped schools during the earlier ordeals. There were no school district edicts or mental health tips. Some teachers made no mention of the Columbia's tragedy; those who did had taken the time to cull lessons from it.

This time, they were not required to soothe frightened children, but to help their students understand why the adults around them seemed so unnerved.

"Remember, these are kids who experienced 9/11," said Smiley. "It takes a lot to measure up. They don't understand what all this means: 'Seven people died. People die every day. What's the big deal about that?' "

Young people today are growing up with space exploration in the background of a world so full of high-tech marvels that the miraculous can seem mundane.

The shuttle's disintegration in the stratosphere might seem no more extraordinary to them than an airplane plunging to the ground or a crash between a car and a train. Many realized this was big news only because it prompted a marathon news blitz that kept their favorite TV shows off the air.

For some kids, the only time they are sure to hear about space shuttle missions is when a tragedy occurs.

As Kramer took questions from her seventh-graders, she was surprised to hear one boy ask, "Have we ever gotten anybody back alive?"
They know so little about space travel "their perception is that we have only flown twice, and both times have been disasters," she said.

But sometimes, disaster can provide a fertile ground for teachers.

On Monday, Kramer used her science background -- for eight years she's worked with NASA training teachers at a summer space camp in Alabama -- to sprinkle her lesson on the Columbia disaster with facts that drew links between what her students know and what they can only imagine.

The shuttle was experiencing 3,000-degree heat as it roared back toward earth, she told them. "You guys complain about taking P.E. when the temperature is 103. Think about that. Three-thousand degrees." The children groaned.

At the shuttle's speed of 13,000 mph, it could get from Florida to California in 20 minutes. "That trip would take us 6 1/2 hours by plane."
In a single day in outer space, astronauts looking down on Earth could see the sun rise and set 16 times.

She left them pondering the absurd and the unbearable. How could a piece of foam insulation precipitate such a disaster, if indeed that was the cause? What about the 12 children the seven dead astronauts left behind?

And she reminded them that life goes on, that just as she once watched her parents celebrate the quest to reach the moon, "one day your kids will be able to say, 'We're going to Mars.' That'll be your adventure, putting life on Mars."

"Whoa," many kids said. Others giggled. In some classes, the students didn't have much to say. When one math teacher asked if anyone had questions, no one raised a hand. He put away the photographs he'd prepared to show them.

For Smiley, the social studies teacher, the loss of Columbia was a chance to put tragedy in historical perspective.

"On one hand it's really sad that they died," he told his seventh-graders. "But they knew the risks going in and made a conscious decision to go forward. Will there be more accidents in space? Yes. Will more people die? Absolutely.

"But as long as there are people who are willing to dream, there will be no shortage of astronauts; people who are willing to go up there to take humanity one more step forward."


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