Great Story about Progress made in Schools!!!

[Jean-Paul]

We need more principals like this one leading schools. I would like to get a handful right here in Arkansas.

A Different Kind of Education
How One Woman Made a Difference

L I T H O N I A , Ga., June 4, 2004 — When Yvonne Butler began her teaching career, she was 186 pounds, and getting heavier.

"I would just keep eating," Butler said. "Candies, cookies anything that was sweet."

Then one day a few years ago, she was rushed to the hospital. Her doctor said she was about to have a stroke.

"He said, 'If this stroke doesn't kill you it's going to leave you a vegetable," Butler recalled. "And that point everything just sort of stopped. I was terrified."

Butler changed her diet. She gave up all those pies, and cakes, and fried foods. Within six months she had lost more than 50 pounds.

Reflections of You

Butler, who had recently become the principal of Browns Mill Elementary School in Lithonia, Ga., then began seeing some of the weight problems her 700 students were having.

"I noticed children were larger than they were supposed to be," she said. "And that scared me because it sort of reminded me of me."

She ordered sweeping changes. The first priority was to remove the soda machines — but there was a problem: the school district had a contract with Coca-Cola.

So Butler insisted the vending machines sell only Dasani-brand water, which is a Coca-Cola product.

Butler then banned fried foods, high-fat foods, and especially sugary desserts. Browns Mill was now a "sugar-free school," which left many parents angry.

"I was very skeptical. I didn't think it was going to work. Of course it had never been done before. And I thought perhaps she had overstepped her boundaries," said parent Sheila Anderson.

A Lesson for Life

Butler organized nutrition "seminars" for parents. She even enlisted the bus drivers to ensure students did not eat sugary snacks on their way to or from school.

"It's hard, because you get attached to those things and it's hard to give them up," said one girl.

Within a year though, not only had many students lost weight, but:

• visits to the school nurse were down 30 percent
• disciplinary problems dropped 20 percent.
• And test scores improved 10 percent to 15 percent.

And that's not all that has changed.

"They are taking responsibility for their health and their lifestyle," Butler said. "This is something that they learn at this school but they will take with them for the rest of their lives."

And thanks to this program, those lives may be longer and healthier.