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NC State Health Plan Steers STAR Initiative

Raleigh, N.C., April 22, 2008 – The North Carolina State Health Plan today launched an innovative program aimed at improving health and wellness in North Carolina’s public schools. The “Staff Together Achieving Results” – or STAR initiative – is a unique collaboration of six education and health partners from the public and private sectors, working to support North Carolina public schools. STAR focuses on strengthening the health of public school personnel and supporting a healthy school environment for teachers, staff and students.

STAR partners believe that improving the health and wellness of teachers and school staff will ultimately strengthen the academic achievement of students. The six STAR partners are the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the North Carolina State Health Plan, the North Carolina Division of Public Health, the North Carolina State Board of Education, the North Carolina School Superintendents’ Association and Pfizer Inc.

Lieutenant Governor Bev Perdue officially launched the initiative, underscoring its importance: “With the state’s commitment to worksite wellness, we are clearly establishing that we will not sit by and watch productivity go down while health care costs and inefficiency go up. I envision that, through STAR, our teachers will set an example for students to follow -- our public institutions and private businesses will set an example for families and friends to follow -- and North Carolina will set an example for America to follow.”

Seven school systems from across the state are participating in the year-long STAR pilot program. Clinton City Schools, Jackson County Schools, Macon County Schools, New Hanover County Schools, Robeson County Schools, Vance County Schools and Warren County Schools have all signed on to meet the STAR worksite wellness challenge.

George C. Stokes, executive administrator of the State Health Plan, explained STAR’s potential impact at a launch event held at the Department of Public Instruction: “I am proud to say that the State Health Plan is working to leverage our experience in worksite wellness to support teachers and staff in the public schools. This pilot program could reach more than 11,000 teachers and school personnel in the seven participating school systems. STAR also affords an excellent opportunity for us to apply experiences and best practices from worksite wellness programs already underway across North Carolina.”

STAR focuses on increasing the percentage of school staff practicing healthy lifestyle behaviors in four key areas: tobacco cessation, physical activity, nutrition and stress management. Baseline health screenings will establish statistics for the voluntary participants in order to evaluate the pilot program after one year. To encourage healthy behaviors such as improved nutrition, increased physical activity and reduced tobacco use, STAR will test a variety of incentives to determine their impact on participation. Studies show that worksite wellness programs can increase employee retention and satisfaction, and may result in significant savings in health care costs and absenteeism.¹

The STAR initiative builds on existing North Carolina public school health programs, including a joint program with the Department of Public Instruction and the North Carolina Division of Public Health. The North Carolina Healthy Schools Initiative focuses on improving the health of students and school staff in eight component areas, based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP) model. Health promotion for teachers and school staff is one of the eight components.

^1. Aldana, SG. “Financial Impact of Health Promotion Programs: A comprehensive review of the literature.” American Journal of Health Promotion. 2001; 15: 296-320.