FirstLine's Wellness Initiative - Update!

This time last year, at a network-wide professional development day, FirstLine Schools (FLS) and its signature program EdibleSchoolyard New Orleans (ESYNOLA) unveiled a new wellness initiative for FirstLine’s five schools. With a full-time Health and Wellness Manager to oversee wellness initiative and track progress and a Network Wellness Council of network-level FirstLine administrators and community partners already in place, the new FLS Comprehensive School Wellness Initiative was prepared to hit the ground running.

ESYNOLA collaborated with the FirstLine operations team to develop more stringent food quality standards and systems for tracking food quality in our school food program. ESYNOLA also held their first daytime, parent-only, hands-on cooking classes this year, in partnership with SecondHarvest Food Bank, and all five FirstLine schools held family food events for National Food Day in October. To inform school food reform efforts, ESYNOLA piloted a plate waste study at Green Charter School to assess student eating habits and school food nutrition content. Tulane Prevention Research Center also got involved in efforts to track student health outcomes, collecting BMI and Fitness Gram data.

In the spring, the Health and Wellness Initiative brought free fitness classes to FirstLine students, family, and friends. Running from 5:30 to 6:30, the afterschool offerings included Zumba (Tuesdays at LHA and Thursdays at Ashe), Yoga (Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays at Green), and hip hop line dancing (Thursdays at Dibert). At  FirstLine’s four K-8 schools, ESYNOLA also coordinated Instant Recess workshops, in partnership with School Health Connection, to promote increased physical activity during the school day.

All five FirstLine schools earned the Healthier US School Challenge Gold with Distinction Award for the initiative’s pilot year, and this is only the beginning. As FitNOLA partners, committed to helping Mayor Mitch Landrieu move New Orleans from No. 37 to one of the top 10 healthiest and physically active metro areas in the U.S., ESYNOLA and FLS’s Physical Education Department are committed to communicating the importance of eating well and moving more, and providing examples of how this can be done through a variety of programming options.

Please keep checking back for updates on our progress and enjoy the summer!  In the meantime, check out this video of 2nd graders at Green Participating in some Instant Recess: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQNxAAk-UeI

Phillis Wheatley Construction Celebration - New Home of Dibert!

Construction is underway at the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School site

Dibert 8th grader, Dameon DeJean, at the celebration

FirstLine Schools came together with the Recovery School District (RSD), Orleans Parish School Board, and community partners last night to celebrate construction on the Phillis Wheatley building, future home of John Dibert Community School. The evening began with a warm welcome from RSD Superintendent Patrick Dobard, a school blessing by the St.Peter Claver Leaders, and a poem performed by Dibert student Dameon DeJean. Lawrence Kullman, chair of the FirstLine board, and a Dibert parent representative shared their excitement for the new building. Mayor Mitch Landrieu and other local leaders also spoke.  Former teachers and students of Phillis Wheatley Elementary School took part in the celebration, sharing memories of the building and the people that worked and were educated there.

FirstLine Board Chair, Larry Kullman

The historic Phyllis Wheatley School building was deemed unfit for the needs of the Treme neighborhood and demolished in 2011. As a part of the School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish, construction on the two-acre site is one of a series of successes in the rebuilding of the city’s public schools since 2008.  

The former Phillis Wheatley Elementary School campus is now becoming a state-of-the-art education facility for Dibert, with multiple computer labs, a gym/auditorium, an expanded ESYNOLA garden, and more!  Dibert anticipates moving into the new address, less than two miles away from their current location, for the 2014-2015 school year.

Clark Prep Alumna featured in Kreol Magazine

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A Clark Prep graduate, and author, Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy was recently featured in an article published in International Kreol Magazine, Mona Lisa Saloy – A Literary Voice for the African-American Creole Culture. 

The article discusses Dr. Saloy’s successes along with her prolific body of work including books, articles, essays and poems. A voice of the African-American and the New Orleans Creole cultural experiences, and a Clark Prep alumna, we are excited to have Dr. Saloy as a part of our community

To learn about Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy, please visit her website.