FILE:  JGB

Cf:  EE

SCHOOL WELLNESS

The Iberville Parish School Board is committed to the optimal development of every student.  The School Board believes that for students to have the opportunity to achieve personal, academic, developmental and social success, we need to create positive, safe and health-promoting learning environments at every level, in every setting, throughout the school year.

Specifically, the School Wellness goals and procedures shall be implemented to ensure that:

• Students in the School District have access to healthy foods throughout the school day ‒ both through reimbursable school meals and other foods available throughout the school campus‒ in accordance with Federal and state nutrition standards;
  
  

• Students receive quality nutrition education that helps them develop lifelong healthy eating behaviors;
  
  

• Students have opportunities to be physically active before, during and after school;
  
  

• Schools engage in nutrition and physical activity promotion and other activities that promote student wellness;
  
  

• School staff are encouraged and supported to practice healthy nutrition and physical activity behaviors in and out of school;
  
  

• The community is engaged in supporting the work of the School District in creating continuity between school and other settings for students and staff to practice lifelong healthy habits; and
  
  

• The School District establishes and maintains an infrastructure for management, oversight, implementation, communication about and monitoring of the policy and its established goals and objectives.

The School Board shall coordinate the School Wellness policy with other aspects of school management, including the School Board’s School Improvement Plan, when appropriate.

The School Wellness policy establishes a formal system of building a world-class school environment that is safe and healthy, thereby enhancing the potential for academic achievement among students.  A healthy child in a nurturing and safe environment has a better attendance record and performs better in school than a child who is not.  Few children eat a healthy diet consistent with recommendations established by health professionals.  Physical inactivity and excessive caloric intake are the main causes of obesity, including unhealthy eating habits and physical inactivity, often are established in childhood.  Students need access to healthful foods and opportunities to be physically active in order to grow and learn.  The Iberville Parish School Board believes the school environment should provide a model of life skills related to healthful eating and physically active habits.

The Iberville Parish School District has authorized the Superintendent to designate a coordinator of the School Wellness policy.  The School Wellness Policy Committee shall be a standing subcommittee of the Iberville Parish School Health Advisory Council.  The subcommittee shall include members that represent students, parents, teachers, food service professionals, health professionals, and other interested community members in developing, implementing, monitoring, and reviewing district-wide nutrition and physical activity policies.  Each public school in the parish shall designate a School Wellness liaison who shall interact with the School Wellness Policy Committee.

PERSONS AFFECTED

The School Wellness policy should reflect the needs to the individual school district and school.  Administrators, faculty, school employees and volunteers, students, parents, school clubs and organizations, and the community should be aware of and follow the policy.

NUTRITION SERVICES

Foods and beverages sold or served at school shall meet nutrition requirements as outlined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).  Program professionals shall provide students with access to a variety of affordable, nutritious, and appealing foods that meet the health and nutrition needs of students; will accommodate the religious, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the student body in meal planning; and will provide clean, safe, and pleasant settings and adequate time for students to eat.

The Iberville Parish School District shall:

1. Offer Child Nutrition Program menus (breakfast, lunch, snack, supper, etc.) that meet the meal patterns and nutrition standards established by the USDA Child Nutrition Program(s).
   
   

2. Encourage students, school staff, and families to participate in school meal programs.
   
   

3. Operate all Child Nutrition Programs with school food service staff who are qualified according to current professional standards.
   
   

4. Provide professional development opportunities for food service staff.
   
   

5. Ensure that food safety and sanitation are followed throughout the school, including providing facilities to wash hands before preparing and eating food.
   
   

6. Ensure that the food service permit is current for the Food Service school site.
   
   

7. Use healthy food preparation techniques for lean meat, poultry, and fish, such as baking.
   
   

8. Ensure that all foods brought into the cafeteria meet the USDA Child Nutrition Guidelines.
   
   

9. Ensure that school meals are accessible to all students with a variety of delivery strategies, such as breakfast in the classroom, grab-and-go meals, or alternate eating sites.
   
   

10. Ensure that students receive adequate time to eat breakfast and the recommended thirty (30) minutes for lunch.
    
    

11. Provide a cafeteria environment that is conducive to a positive dining experience, with socializing among students and between students and adults; with supervision of eating areas by adults who model proper conduct and voice level; and with adults who model healthy habits by eating with the students.

Foods and Beverages Offered Outside of the Child Nutrition Programs

The School District is committed to ensuring that all foods and beverages available to students on the school campus during the school day support healthy eating and comply with current USDA nutritional criteria in terms of calories, fat, sodium, and sugar.  The National School Lunch Program defines the school day as beginning thirty (30) minutes before midnight until thirty (30 minutes after the last bell rings.

The Iberville Parish School District shall:

1. Comply with current USDA nutritional standards for all foods and beverages sold outside the USDA Child Nutrition Programs (vending machines, concession stores, school parties, fundraising events, etc.)
   
   

2. Eliminate use of foods and beverages as rewards for student accomplishment.
   
   

3. Promote fundraisers that sell items other than food and beverages or only foods and beverages that are nutrient dense (low in calories and high in nutrients).
   
   

4. Provide nutritious and appealing food and beverage options (such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, reduced-fat milk, reduced fat-yogurt, reduced-fat cheese, 100% juice and water) whenever foods/beverages are sold or otherwise offered after school at sporting and academic events, celebrations, social events, after school care, and other school functions.

NUTRITION EDUCATION

School-based nutrition education includes traditional classroom lessons and behavioral change programs based on social learning theory and marketing.  Using all venues is recommended for optimal impact.

Nutrition is not a stand-alone course.  It is taught in health education and science classes and can be integrated into core content area of instruction across the curriculum.  A planned, sequential curriculum where the lessons are aligned with standards, benchmarks, and grade- level expectations is essential to impact knowledge, attitude, and behavior.  Additionally, the cafeteria can be used as part of the total educational system for modeling behavior.

The Iberville Parish School District shall:

1. Provide the equivalent of a six-week unit on nutrition or ensure that at a minimum of thirty (30) hours of nutrition is taught in the classroom during the year.
   
   

2. Implement nutrition education programs that promote lifelong healthful eating practices that are research-based.
   
   

3. Use lessons that are age-appropriate, behaviorally focused content that is developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant.
   
   

4. Use curriculum and lessons that are sequential and are correlated with standards, benchmarks, and grade level expectations.
   
   

5. Provide hands-on activities that are fun and engaging.
   
   

6. Provide repeated opportunities for students to taste foods that are low in fat, sodium and added sugars and high in vitamins, minerals and fiber.
   
   

7. Promote positive aspects of healthful eating behaviors.
   
   

8. Promote social learning techniques such as role modeling, providing incentives, developing social resistance skills, overcoming barriers to behavioral changes and goal- setting, social resistance skills, overcoming barriers to behavioral changes and goal setting.
   
   

9. Strive toward hiring qualified, certified health education teachers.
   
   

10. Provide nutrition education related staff development opportunities for teachers on an annual basis.
    
    

11. Encourage parent involvement in lessons taught and school activities.
    
    

12. Coordinate marketing activities with nutrition education classroom activities.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND ACTIVITY

Daily physical activity is essential to student welfare and academic performance. Federal Guidelines recommend that children and teenagers be physically active for an accumulation of at least sixty (60) minutes daily.  Since children spend the majority of their time at school during weekdays, it is imperative that schools provide students with the means to participate in physical activity.  The School Districts and schools, including parents and communities, shall offer additional opportunities and resources for physical activity outside physical education classes.

The Iberville Parish School District shall:

1. Implement quality physical education programs that emphasize and promote participation in lifelong physical activities and reaching a health enhancing level of physical fitness among all students.
   
   

2. The physical education lessons should be aligned with standards, benchmarks, and grade- level expectations.
   
   

3. Ensure that enough age-appropriate and safe equipment is in place to guarantee that all students are able to be active for physical education and physical activity.
   
   

4. Ensure that qualified, certified physical education teachers guide physical activity instruction in all elementary grades as well as in middle and high school physical education classes.
   
   

5. Encourage physical activity during recess for elementary students, intramurals programs, and clubs, as well as in physical education programs.
   
   Each school that includes any of the grades kindergarten through five shall provide at least fifteen (15) minutes of recess, consisting of supervised, unstructured free play, each school day.
   
   

6. Integrate physical activity in the academic curriculum,
   
   

7. Work with the community to create opportunities for students to walk, bike, skateboard, roller-skate, play basketball, play softball, play baseball, or participate in other physical activities in a safe location at times other than the school day.
   
   

8. Encourage school staff to participate in physical activities to serve as role models.
   
   

9. Develops students’ self-confidence and eliminates practices that humiliate students.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION

At least once every three (3) years, the School Board and School Wellness Committee shall evaluate compliance with the School Wellness policy to monitor and assess the implementation of the policy and document the assessment for each school under its jurisdiction.  The School Wellness policy shall be assessed and updated as indicated at least every three (3) years, following this triennial assessment.

COMMUNICATION AND PROMOTION OF THE WELLNESS POLICY

The School District shall actively inform families and the public each year of basic information about the School Wellness policy, including its content, any updates to the policy and implementation status.  The School District shall make this information available via the School District website and/or district-wide communications.  The School District shall provide as much information as possible about the school nutrition environment.  This shall include a summary of the School District’s events or activities related to the School Wellness policy implementation.  Annually, the School District shall also publicize the name and contact information of the School District leading and coordinating the committee, as well as information on how the public can get involved with the School Wellness committee.

Ref:    42 USC 1751 et seq. (Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act)

42 USC 1771 et seq. (Child Nutrition Act of 1966)

7 CFR 210 (National School Lunch Program)

7 CFR 210.31 (Local School Wellness Policy)

7 CFR 220 (School Breakfast Program)

La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§17:17.1, 17:17.7, 17:197.1

Board minutes, 8-9-10, 12-13-10, 10-11-11, 10-17-22, 1-10-24

Iberville Parish School Board