By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

Students at Alabaster’s Meadow View Elementary School will have more ways to stay active and healthy during the next school year after the school recently won grant from a national agency.

In late January, MVES became the only school in Alabaster to receive the Institute for America’s Health’s Wellness, Academics and You grant. Through the grant, the school will receive more than $20,000 worth of resources and professional development services aimed at making sure kids eat well and get enough exercise.

“We are thrilled and excited about this,” MVES Principal Rachea Simms said during a Feb. 25 interview. “We are hoping we will be able to share the good news with the (Alabaster School) Board during their March meeting.”

Simms praised MVES physical education teacher Tracy Edwards for helping the school secure the grant. After Edwards did work with the Fuel Up to Play 60 campaign, Simms said it drew attention from the Institute for America’s Health.

After observing the school for the past two years, the institute chose MVES for the grant in early 2014.

Through the grant, the institute will work with the school’s teachers to implement a nutrition and wellness plan into the school’s daily curriculum. The school has already begun meeting with institute representatives to start rolling out the program.

“We had our first training meeting last week, and the WAY program funded that,” Simms said. “They sat down with each grade level to talk about ways to implement the program into the classroom curriculum.”

MVES has already rolled out a few aspects of the program in its physical education, its English as a second language and its special-needs classes, and will fully implement the program during the 2014-2015 school year, Simms said.