Central Valley
Regional Award Winner
Regional Award Winner
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El Tejon Elementary submitted the following three essays for consideration of the Governor's Challenge Competition Grand Prize: Essay 1 - Commitment to Promoting Healthy Eating on Campus El Tejon School is exceptionally committed to promoting healthy eating on campus. In the cafeteria, healthier menus and more balanced meals are being served, with more fruits and vegetables being served at lunchtime. The calorie counts on the meals served have been significantly reduced. The cafeteria's program has maintained a diet of less than 30% total fat, and less than 10% saturated fat, and the vitamin, fiber, calcium, and iron levels exceed 140% of the state requirements. The cholesterol levels are always below the state standards, and the required calories for each grade level are always met. All students are required to eat three different items from the food groups. Large signs are posted on the walls in the cafeteria to promote and encourage healthy eating habits. There are no candy sales on campus. The school's snack bar only sells 100% juices, and snacks which contain less than 2 grams of trans fat. All soda vending machines have been eliminated and replaced with water. A vegetable and vegetable dip party was held to help promote healthier eating. Perhaps the most creative way the school has encouraged healthier eating was when they distributed auto racing cards to the students. Each card has a list on the back of the cards that contain advice on healthy eating, diet, and exercise. And finally, an increasing number of students have been bringing healthier foods and snacks to school, such as apples, carrots, applesauce, 100% fruit juices, and many other wonderful, healthy choices. Because of the huge concern of childhood obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, El Tejon School has made a truly positive influence and tremendous progress in educating their students on better eating habits, and the school will continue to maintain its commitment to teaching the importance of healthy eating. Essay 2 - Support of Students’ Physical Activity and Fitness Over the years, El Tejon School has participated in many activities that promote physical fitness. Activities such as the Presidential Physical Fitness Contest, Jog-a-thons, NFL Punt, Pass,& Kick Contest, Pepsi Pitch, Hit & Run Contest, and after school sports programs. These are done for the ultimate goal of fun ways to incorporate physical activity and fitness. For the Governor's Challenge contest, we had reminders during school announcements in the morning for the students to be working on their fitness activities on their own time for the contest. We had students make up their own activity logs for Monday-Sunday. In this log, the students charted the activity they did that particular day in terms of fitness, and the amount of minutes the activity lasted. In the log, students would track their eating, listing what fruits or vegetables they ate that day, and the parents would sign off on it, thereby making it a family-wide activity. The students were also given pedometers in order to track the number of steps they take in a day. In our P.E. Classes, the students are required to jog daily, and we work on exercises to promote strength, agility, and endurance. We also run what we feel is an innovative fitness, strength, speed, and agility contest in our school. This is a competitive contest where students participate in activities such as: 40 yard dash, 100 meter dash, Rope Climb, Shuttle Run, Sit-Ups, Pull-Ups, Push-Ups, Mile, Broad Jump, and Vertical Jump. We rank the students by grade level and by sex for the 7th grade boys, girls, and 8th grade girls and boys for every category and post it. This helps significantly impact the physical activity levels as we have kids who practice for these categories on their own time in a desire to do well. Essay 3- Need For a New Fitness Center El Tejon School is a school of 472 students in the mountains at the top of the Grapevine at an elevation of almost 4000 feet. Our school gymnasium is a drama/gymnasium facility measuring only 46 feet by 65 feet which was built in 1936. This is extremely small for a school gymnasium, where we have some classes over 60 students. We are negatively impacted during P.E. due to lack of space, especially when there is inclement weather. With a fitness center, we would have a place for our students to exercise besides the gymnasium. We live in a isolated rural community without access to a fitness center. Having this fitness center on campus would be a very positive experience for our students and the community. The nearest access to a fitness center is way out of reach for our community. Physical fitness is one of our primary goals in our physical education program. We focus on strength, agility, and endurance in the program we provide. A fitness center with the new equipment we could provide with this grant would help benefit our students a great deal. We have a large number of students who are socio-economically disadvantaged as more than 40% of our student population is on free/reduced lunch. These kids don't have the same advantages as students from more affluent school districts. By bringing this facility to the school, you would be serving an underprivileged population and giving them the same opportunities that other schools may already have. We are a small school district that won't be able to fund something like a fitness center from within. The funding of a fitness center would be appreciated by our student body and community. |
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