FARMINGTON — While much of the state continues to wrangle over funding cuts to community and school health programs, Mt. Blue Regional School District directors have chosen to support their student health education program.

A settlement with tobacco companies in 2000 funded Healthy Maine Partnership programs. A collaborative effort of the Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Office of Substance Abuse and the Department of Education funded local programs and positions for community and school health educators. The Legislature passed a budget in June that reduced this statewide funding from $7.5 million to $4.7 million, and 31 HMP district budgets and 28 positions have been affected.

Superintendent Michael Cormier told directors in a recent June meeting that the loss of this $2.1 million effectively ended the statewide health educator programs and positions, and funds would be directed to a handful of HMPs. He said RSD 9 budgeted for a worst-case scenario, and he hoped to find a way to keep school health educator Alyce Cavanaugh in her position.

“She plays an incredibly important role within the district,” Cormier said. “We’d hate to lose her expertise.”

At Tuesday night’s meeting, Cormier announced that Cavanaugh could continue her position if the board agreed to funding 108 work days through the food services budget and other funds from grants. Part of Cavanaugh’s $21,060 salary will come from a grant she wrote last year.

Directors unanimously approved funding the position. Two board members, Betsey Hyde and Helen Wilkey, and school lunch program director Cheryl Ellis will work with Cavanaugh in the coming school year.

One of the most popular parts of the program has been the “Now You’re Cookin’! Club.”

Cavanaugh said she disputes the wisdom of the top-down approach of the DHHS and Department of Education cuts. Much of her job included hours of paperwork required by state-level administration, she said. She called and wrote to Gov. Paul LePage and Sen. Tom Saviello, she said, to protest the flawed reasoning.

“School health coordinators bring millions of dollars to Maine through grant writing,” she said. “We don’t need more policies. We need more education.”

She looks forward to administering the program she developed through U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Fruits and Veggies” grant money. Students will become more involved with the nutritional planning of their school lunches and learn more about ways to reach and maintain a healthy weight.

“We have 51 percent of the students on free or reduced lunches, and the goal is to improve the quality of the food we serve them,” she said.

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