A symposium held at North Rockland school’s Fieldstone Secondary School last week drew about 75 people to discuss the link between mentally, emotionally and physically healthy kids and test scores.

About half the audience were educators, half from the health care professions. Keynote speaker was Mark Doody, superintendent for Hudson Falls schools.

Hudson Falls is a high-needs rural district of about 2,400 students. In the past decade or so, most of the factories that employed people and graduating high school kids have closed. Some 45 percent of the students enrolled today are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch, an indication of poverty.

When the state introduced its standardized testing in 2003, Doody—who had just been made superintendent from high school principal—was looking for a way to help raise test scores that wouldn’t cost a lot of money his community didn’t have. Using common sense and the help of his local health department, he decided to concentrate on a districtwide health and wellness program.

Over the past five years, the district has seen test scores among poor students become closer to scores of more affluent students and attendance rates slightly increase. The experiment, in his mind and that of his community, has been a wild success.

He didn’t just concentrate on students. He got teachers and other staff involved and parents.

For a look at how this could affect some local districts, check out this link.