Data from a six-year health and wellness initiative in the Chula Vista Elementary School District, revealed a decrease in the amount of obesity in students from preschool to sixth grade.

The district announced the results Monday, May 8, at Silver Wing Elementary School, one of the schools with the greatest drop in numbers of students with obesity.

The results showed there was a 17 percent decrease of students in the obesity category, an 8 percent decrease in students in the overweight category and a 7 percent increase in students in a normal weight category in the district.

Back in 2010, the district measured the height and weight to determine the body mass index of each student and found that 40 percent were in an unhealthy weight category.

Anthony Millican, communications director for the district, said the results in 2010 were placed on a color coded map and parents gasped when they saw the schools with the highest levels of obesity.

“When you show your child’s school in the red or in the orange, that hits home,” he said. “Parents want the best for their children and they don’t want them to grow up with negative health consequences.”

The district partnered with the County of San Diego, Health and Human Services Agency and worked with the City of Chula Vista.

Millican said the initiative involved analyzing what role environments play in the kind of food students eat at school and outside of school.

The district encourages fundraisers to avoid selling chocolate and adopt fundraisers that involve activities like running, he said.

“It didn’t happen overnight,” he said. “it was an adjustment at first and it did involve a lot of education of students, parents and community as to how to support health and wellness.”

Millican said the district will keep working until all the schools are in a healthier range.