For the past several months there has certainly been a lot of talk about a plan by the Toms River Regional School District to construct a privately-funded Wellness Center. The problem for most of the public has been to separate fact from fiction over the facility, which is to be located between Hooper Avenue Elementary School and Intermediate East and sit in front of the indoor athletic complex known as “The Bubble.”
Critics and opponents have portrayed the planned building as nothing more than a gym and fitness center while the school district says its main goal would be to educate students and the public on the importance of wellness and a healthy, balanced lifestyle. Wellness education would focus on nutrition and exercise and also deal with the problems of smoking, drugs and alcohol. The idea behind a center would be to have a centralized location to provide the tools needed to promote optimal health for school-age students.
Again the problem over the past few months has been for the general public to really understand what the proposed facility is all about. To that end the Board of Education and Administration have established a 40-member Planning and Development Committee, and I’ve agreed to be part of that group. We me for the first time last night and got an overview of the project from Superintendent Michael Ritacco, Assistant Superintendent Michael Citta and Board member Betty Vasil, who will chair the committee.
The group is a diverse one of professionals, concerned parents, teachers and local citizens and we will be meeting regularly over the next few months as final planning begins which hopefully will lead to ground breaking in the near future.
In order to get a better idea of what the Wellness Center might look like the committee will be visiting one already open and operating in Hamilton Township before our next meeting.
The bottom line is the School District is including the public in the project which hopefully leads to ideas and suggestions which will be implemented. Just as important we’ll be able to separate fact from fiction and that in itself is a step in the right direction.
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3 comments:
It seems to me that the Toms River Regional School District is doing it backwards with this Wellness Center. It is said to educate students on the "importance of wellness and heathy, balanced lifestyle". Yet the school district lets thier students leave the 3 TR High Schools at lunch peroids to do what? Eat pizza and doritos and also look for an off campus smokeing area. Should we first address this problem before the building of the WC.
look, the first post needs to look at this another way....the wellness center is a marvelous step in the right direction for our community.Not all kids that leave for lunch eat pizza, doritos and look for a place to smoke. My own son leaves every day and yes he does eat pizza. He also lifts, does a cardio workout and swims 6 days a week at the Y. He has become commited to his exercise routine for various reasons, physical amd mental well being his top reasons. Instead of looking for the negative in this exciting concept realize this is the direction our country must go in as well. The company my husband works for (pharmacutical) just sent out a colorful flyer outlining their health insurance plans that will only be available to their employees next year. It is so different from type of policy I've ever seen. However it it totally based on prevention and wellness. Just because something is NEW doesn't mean it's wrong. Our way of thinking needs to change. Once you change your thinking your actions and decisions begin to change, thus the students not making the best choices may begin to make better choices due to education.
There is little argument over the community benefit of a Wellness Center, however, I wonder why Mr. Ritacco led the public to believe it was a "concept" in public statements as recently as April, when in fact preliminary plans had already been filed, a contract awarded, and funding secured by the private vendor? Within one month, Ritacco had switched gears from "concept" to "we've been working on this since 2004". The impression I was left with is that Mr. Ritacco and the BOE realized the location of this facility (private entity on public land)is controversial, especially on the heels of the demolition of the last historic schoolhouse (J Building), and construction of the Poland Springs Arena & Bennett Bubble. I'm pretty sure Ritacco wouldn't have needed to enter "damage control mode" about the Wellness Center project if Carol Benson hadn't caught him in an untruth.
With all due respect to Mr. Williams, his view, along with the composition of the "Planning & Development Committee", is far from objective. The Wellness Center does not belong on public land. It's a solid idea in a bad location
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