OXFORD – Jeni Fitts said she thinks students and staff at SAD 17 are healthier now than they were two years ago.

And she has the programs to prove it.

Monday night she presented results of the fitness programs to the SAD 17 Board of Directors. The programs were funded by a Healthy Maine Partnership grant.

“A lot of people realize how important health is,” Fitts said Tuesday. “If kids aren’t healthy they aren’t learning.”

Fitts, who was a substitute teacher about two years ago, was hired as the SAD 17 school health coordinator. She graduated from the University of Maine at Farmington in 2000 with a degree in community health education.

Fitts, in partnership with Western Maine Health, the parent company for Stephens Memorial Hospital, administered a $79,923 grant to provide health education and other programs beginning in 2000.

In July 2002, the partnership received $53,282, and Fitts said she expects to receive $70,000 for the next school year.

She explained that the money is from the national tobacco lawsuit settlement.

“The program is scheduled to be funded until 2006, but that depends on the Maine budget issues,” Fitts said.

She said the grant has three goals: increase physical activity, promote nutrition and decrease tobacco use.

Fitts said some of her physical activity success included:

• 2,643 students and staff participated in the national All Children Exercise Simultaneously event.

• 20 classes participated in her version of Walk Across America.

• Students at Guy E. Rowe School in Norway participated in the National Walk Your Child to School Day.

In collaboration with community organizations, an Oxford Hills Middle School walking path will be completed this year.

She said she is especially proud of the Walk Across America program in which children walked before, after and during school on their own time to see how far they could walk.

Fitts said most of the classes walked distances equal to the distances to different towns in New York state.

But the Guy E. Rowe second grade walked a distance equivalent to the distance to Denver, Colo., Fitts said.

Nutritionally she has seen the high school replace some candy products with healthier snacks in vending machines and add a milk vending machine.

Districtwide, she has been able to spread the word on health through 26 teachers, who have received $100 grants for classroom nutrition projects.

Concerning tobacco use, Fitts reported that 90 percent of fourth-grade classes participated in Tar Wars classes to learn the health dangers of tobacco use, and tobacco education/cessation information was distributed to all students and staff through the district’s e-mail system.

Support was also provided to staff members who wanted to quit smoking.

A monthly staff wellness newsletter was started and stress management workshops were provided.

Fitts said a Maine Office of Substance Abuse grant of $153,000 per year for each of three years was awarded in collaboration with Community Concepts Inc., a social service agency based in Paris, and SAD 44 in Bethel for prevention and intervention in youth tobacco and drug use.

“It’s a big job,” Fitts said. “But health is the key to our life.”