Highmark Foundation awards grants to schools to create healthier, safer environments

Highlands Middle School students will be working out in an updated fitness room thanks to a grant from the Highmark Foundation.

The district is expected to receive $7,300 to help replace outdated equipment and modernize the facilities.

“We encounter many challenges daily while conducting our PE and Lifetime Wellness classes with limited facilities and space,” Assistant Superintendent Cathleen Cubelic said.

“We currently have a gymnasium with limited space as we await repairs to the bleachers. The current status of our fitness/wrestling storage room is not conducive to accommodating a roster of more than 10 students.

“In addition, most of the equipment is not age-appropriate.”

Highlands is among several schools in the Alle-Kiski Valley and Westmoreland County to receive grants from the Highmark Foundation.

In all, 81 schools in Pennsylvania and West Virginia were among those the foundation announced Tuesday will get a share of $454,400 from its School Grants and Awards program.

Public, private, parochial, charter and vocational high schools in both states were eligible to apply. The foundation received more than 180 applications totaling more than $770,000 in requests.

Now in its 10th year, the program has awarded more than $3.8 million to help bring about healthy changes in schools in the foundation’s service region.

“Schools are where health, safety, education and the overall well-being of students take place,” Highmark Foundation President Yvonne Cook said. “Our student-focused grants program equips schools with resources to create healthier and safer school environments.”

Of the 81 grants, 51 totaling $300,300 went to schools in Western Pennsylvania.

Other Alle-Kiski Valley schools receiving funds and the programs the grants will support are:

• Fox Chapel Area School District: $7,100, Raising Expectations Daily.

• Highlands School District: $7,300, Rams Fit Club.

• Kiski Area High School: $7,300, Lunch and Learn Fitness Club.

• Roy A. Hunt Elementary, New Kensington-Arnold School District: $2,700, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports.

The program at Hunt was rolled out at the elementary school in Arnold earlier this year. With a focus on prevention instead of punishment, it is intended to teach and reinforce good behaviors among students.

Superintendent Chris Sefcheck said they want to add character education to the program to teach students how to understand and appreciate specific character traits. “Sensory pathways” will be created in the school for students who need help learning and exhibiting those traits.

At Highlands, Cubelic said the grant will provide free continuing-education fitness certification training by Advantage Fitness for the district’s Middle School health and wellness staff.

She said the school will use upgraded facilities to further promote the Lifetime Wellness objective through a Rams Fit Club that will be a before- or after-school program open to all students in grades five through eight.

The program will provide students with lessons on spiritual, physical and emotional health, Cubelic said. Topics will include goal setting, healthy weight management, disease prevention, peer acceptance, stress management and relationship building.

In Westmoreland County, the schools and programs receiving funds are:

• Franklin Regional School District: $6,900, Panther Fit.

• Greensburg Salem Middle School: $5,000, Heart Healthy Golden Lions.

• Queen of Angels Catholic School: $7,100, Responsive Classroom Positive School Climate Initiative.

• Stewartsville Elementary, Norwin School District: $7,100, Peaceful Playground.

• Sunset Valley Elementary, Norwin School District: $6,700, Put a Spark in Your Body.

• Westmoreland Intermediate Unit 7, Clairview School: $1,500, Wolf Den Cafe.

Norwin applied for five grants and received two, said Heather Newell, director of curriculum and assessment who also coordinates grants for the district.

“It’s a huge win for students,” she said. “Given the attention that we’re paying to mental health and creating a positive engaging environment at school, these will really contribute to those efforts.”

Newell said the “Peaceful Playground” at Stewartsville will provide structured, entertaining play and interaction for students who appreciate that during their recess time, while teaching positive interactions and good sportsmanship.

The program at Sunset Valley will bring daily physical activity into learning time, so students can get up and move during breaks in instruction, Newell said.

The Wolf Den Cafe at Clairview School in Hempfield will get a glass-front display refrigerator and a commercial-grade smoothie machine with its grant, said Luann Murtha, president of the WIU foundation and a life skills teacher and transition coordinator at Clairview who applied for the grant.

Serving all 17 school districts in Westmoreland County, Clairview has about 100 students from kindergarten through age 21 who have special needs that can’t be met at their public schools, Murtha said. The high school life skills class plans and operates the cafe for their fellow students.

Murtha said they will provide healthier snack options such as fruits, vegetables, smoothies, parfaits and yogurt.

At Greensburg Salem Middle School, the grant will be used to provide students with heart-rate monitors, said Megan McIntyre, a health and physical education teacher. It also will cover part of the health program providing access to an online textbook.

“Every time the Highmark grants become available, we apply for it and try to add new things to make our program better and more personal physical fitness-based rather than just team sports,” McIntyre said. “This year will be the first time we are able to incorporate heart-rate monitors. It’s one thing to teach them about target heart rates. To see it in action will help further their understanding.”

McIntyre said they’ll introduce the wrist monitors this fall to all of the school’s 600 students in sixth through eighth grades, but they will be used more heavily in seventh grade classes. Students will share them during their physical education class; McIntyre said they’ll see how it goes and apply for another grant to get more.

Queen of Angels Catholic School will use its grant for teacher training and resources for a new schoolwide initiative that will start this fall, said Christina Torok, director of development.

Located in North Huntingdon, Queen of Angels has about 250 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and has seen an increase in enrollment, Torok said.

Torok said the “Responsive Classroom Positive School Climate” effort will see teachers actively involving students in managing classrooms.

As an example, instead of students coming into a classroom and seeing rules already written down, they will be involved in creating them, she said.

“When the students are involved in the classroom management structure, teachers are able to address student needs on a more individual basis,” Torok said.

Students and teachers will have morning meetings to address needs they might have.

“It’s building relationships between the student and the teacher,” Torok said.

The full list of grant recipients is available at highmarkfoundation.org.

Tawnya Panizzi and Brian Rittmeyer are Tribune-Review staff writers. You can contact Tawnya at 724-226-7726, tpanizzi@triblive.com or via Twitter @tawnyatrib.Brian C. Rittmeyer is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Brian at 724-226-4701, brittmeyer@triblive.com or via Twitter @BCRittmeyer.