Belton's+Policy

The primary goals of the Belton School District’s wellness program are to promote student health, reduce student overweight/obesity, facilitate student learning of lifelong healthy habits and increase student achievement. The following procedures will guide the implementation of the district wellness program. ** Nutrition Guidelines ** 1. The School Meals program will continue at the present Missouri Eat Smart Guidelines intermediate/advanced level (more healthful than the minimum level). 2. Reduced-fat and/or fat-free salad dressings will be offered at the elementary level as well as the secondary. 3. Snacks offered in the After-School Program will meet the Eat Smart intermediate requirement at least 50% of the time. Intermediate level recommends not more than 35% of total calories from fat (excluding cheese, nuts, seeds and nut butters) and not more than 35% of weight from sugar (excluding fruit without added sugar, 100% juice and milk) 4. A thorough review of reports from school district which have opted for healthy items in their vending machines rather than “foods of minimal nutritional value” will be made and evaluated regarding health and financial impacts. 5. Water will be available and encouraged to all students throughout the school day. Clear, sealable water bottles (without straws) may be utilized in classrooms without water fountains. 6. Fifty percent of the food and beverages available at school parties will meet the intermediate guideline level. (See #3 above) 7. Classroom parties will be scheduled after lunch whenever possible. A list of recommended foods/snacks will be provided to parents/PTA. 8. Committee of staff and secondary students will select healthy alternatives for vending machines. 9. All items offered in all vending machines will meet the intermediate guideline level. (See #3 above) 10. “Foods of Minimal Nutritional Value” sold for fund raisers or offered as rewards will not be made available during school hours. (FMNV includes soda, popsicles, chewing gum, and candy)   The district's physical activity goal is to assist students in learning to value and enjoy physical activity as an ongoing part of a healthy lifestyle by ensuring that every student has the opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to perform a variety of physical activities, maintain physical fitness and regularly participate in physical activity. In order to achieve the physical activity goal, the district will:  Ø Provide for at least 60 (recommended: 150) minutes of physical education for students in the elementary grades during the school week; at least 165 (recommended: 225) minutes during each school week for students in middle school; and at least 1 ½ (recommended: two) units for students in high school. Ø Emphasize knowledge and skills for a lifetime of regular physical activity. Ø Devote at least 50 percent of physical education class time to actual physical activity in each week, with as much time as possible spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity. Ø Meet the needs of all students, especially those who are not athletically gifted or who have special needs. Ø Provide a variety of activity choices, feature cooperative as well as competitive activities, and account for gender and cultural differences in students' interests. Ø Prohibit exemptions from physical education courses on the basis of participation in an athletic team, community recreation program, ROTC, marching band or other school or community activity. Ø Be closely coordinated with the other components of the overall school health program. Ø Providing a diverse selection of competitive and noncompetitive, as well as structured and unstructured, activities to the extent that staffing and district/community facilities permit. Ø Offering intramural physical activity programs that feature a broad range of competitive and cooperative activities for all students. Ø Encouraging partnerships between schools and businesses. Promotion of such partnerships must be appropriate and in accordance with Board policy and applicable procedures. Ø Actively engaging families as partners in their children's education and collaborating with community agencies and organizations to provide ample opportunities for students to participate in physical activity beyond the school day. Ø Encouraging schools to work with recreation agencies and other community organizations to coordinate and enhance opportunities available to students for physical activity during their out-of-school time. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø Encouraging schools to negotiate mutually acceptable, fiscally responsible arrangements with community agencies and organizations to keep district-owned facilities open for use by students, staff and community members during non-school hours and vacations. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø Encouraging district officials to work together with local public works, public safety, police departments and/or other appropriate state and federal authorities in efforts to make it safer and easier for students to walk and bike to school. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø Planning, establishing and implementing activities to promote physical activity among staff and providing opportunities for staff to conveniently engage in regular physical activity. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø Working with recreation agencies and other community organizations to coordinate and enhance opportunities available to staff for physical activity during their out-of-school time. ** Nutrition Education ** The district’s nutrition education goal is to integrate sequential nutrition education with the core curriculum taught at every grade level in order to provide students with the necessary knowledge and skills to make healthy nutrition decisions. In order to achieve the nutrition education goal, the district will: 1. Provide students and their families with adequate nutritional knowledge including, but not limited to: <span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø  The benefits of healthy eating <span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø  Essential nutrients <span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø  Nutritional deficiencies <span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø  Principles of healthy weight management <span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø  The use and misuse of dietary supplements <span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø  Safe food preparation, handling and storage 2. Provide students with nutrition-related skills that minimally include the ability to: <span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø  Plan healthy meals <span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø  Understand and use food labels <span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø  Apply the principals of the MyPyramid <span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø  Critically evaluate nutrition information, misinformation and commercial food advertising <span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø  Assess personal eating habits, nutrition goal-setting and achievement 3. Provide instructional activities that stress the appealing aspects of healthy eating and are hands-on, behavior based, culturally relevant, developmentally appropriate and enjoyable. 4. Encourage district staff to cooperate with local agencies and community groups to provide students with opportunities for volunteer work related to nutrition, such as in food banks or after-school programs. 5. Ensure that all staff consistently promote healthy eating to students and other staff and that these professionals are prepared to recognize conditions such as unhealthy weight, eating disorders and other nutrition-related health problems among students and staff as well as assure access to healthcare. 6. Align the food service program to reflect nutrition instruction and to achieve common goals. 7. Provide continuing professional development for staff that provides nutrition education. 8. Develop grade appropriate academic content standards and learning expectations for nutrition education. 9. Grade appropriate nutrition education will be included in individual school improvement plans. 10. Encourage district staff to cooperate with local agencies and community groups to promote widespread, consistent nutrition education awareness. 11. Assess nutrition education programs to ensure effectiveness. ** Other School Based Activities ** // ** Community Involvement ** // <span style="font-family: 'CGTimes','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: CGTimes;">School instructional staff will collaborate with agencies and groups conducting nutrition education in the community to send consistent messages to students and their families. Guest speakers invited to address students will receive appropriate orientation to the relevant policies of the district. <span style="font-family: 'CGTimes','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: CGTimes;"> <span style="font-family: 'CGTimes','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: CGTimes;">The wellness program shall make effective use of district and community resources and equitably serve the needs and interests of all students and staff, taking into consideration differences of gender, cultural norms, physical and cognitive abilities and fitness level. // ** Family Involvement ** // <span style="font-family: 'CGTimes','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: CGTimes;">The district will strive to engage families as partners in their children's education by supporting parental efforts to motivate and help their children with maintaining and improving their health, preventing disease and avoiding health-related risk behaviors. Strategies the district may implement to achieve family involvement may include, but are not limited to: 1. Posting nutrition tips on district websites 2. Providing nutrient analysis of district menus 3. Providing parents/guardians a list of appropriate foods that meet the district’s nutrition standards for snacks, celebrations, parties, rewards and fundraising activities that will be disseminated at the beginning of the year 4. Encouraging parents/guardians to pack healthy lunches and snacks and to refrain from including beverages and foods that do not meet the district’s nutrition standards for individual foods and beverages. 5. Working with families to provide consistent sun safety information // ** Marketing and Advertising ** // Food and beverage marketing will be limited to the promotion of foods and beverages that meet the nutrition standards adopted by the Board. Other examples of marketing and advertising the district will scrutinize include, but are not limited to: Pricing strategies that promote healthy food choices, audiovisual programming, educational incentive programs, scoreboards, book covers and vending machine displays. // ** Meal Times ** // Students are not permitted to leave school campus during the school day to purchase food or beverages. Meal times will comply with the following guidelines. 1. Meal times will provide students with at least 10 minutes to eat after sitting down for breakfast and 20 minutes after sitting down for lunch. 2. Activities such as tutoring or meetings will not be held during mealtimes unless students may eat during such activities. 3. Drinking water will be available to students during meals. 4. Students will have access and be given an opportunity to use hand-washing facilities before eating meals or snacks. 5. The district will take reasonable steps to accommodate the tooth-brushing regimens of students. 6. Students will be allowed to converse during meals. 7. The cafeteria will be clean, orderly and inviting. 8. Adequate seating and supervision will be provided during meal times. 9. Cafeteria personnel will be trained on reasonable, consistent rules and expectations developed on each school campus. It is recommended these expectations be posted in plain sight within the dining room. // ** Outdoor Air Quality ** // The principal of each school will be responsible for daily monitoring of outdoor Air Quality Index (AQI) information provided by local authorities based on the following guidelines: 1. When the AQI is “code orange” (unhealthy for sensitive groups of people), students with a history of reactions to ozone exposure will be permitted to reduce their outdoor exertion level or time spent outdoors, and the staff will arrange alternative indoor physical activities. 2. When the AQI is “code red” (unhealthy), students with a history of reactions to Ozone exposure will remain indoors and participate in indoor physical activities. 3. When the AQI is “code purple” (very unhealthy) or “code maroon” (hazardous), all students will be kept indoors and participate in indoor physical activities. <span style="font-family: 'CGTimes,BoldItalic','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'CGTimes,BoldItalic';"> <span style="font-family: 'CGTimes,BoldItalic','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'CGTimes,BoldItalic'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-family: 'CGTimes,BoldItalic','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'CGTimes,BoldItalic'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Staff responsible for nutrition education will be adequately prepared and regularly participate in professional development activities to effectively deliver the nutrition education program. <span style="font-family: 'CGTimes,BoldItalic','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'CGTimes,BoldItalic'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-family: 'CGTimes,BoldItalic','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'CGTimes,BoldItalic';"> <span style="font-family: 'CGTimes','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: CGTimes;">The Belton No. 124 School District highly values the health and well-being of every staff member and will plan and implement activities and policies that support personal efforts by staff to maintain a healthy weight for optimal health. The district will establish and maintain a staff wellness committee composed of at least one (1): staff member; wellness committ ee member; food services director  <span style="font-family: 'CGTimes','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: CGTimes;">, school nurse or other healthcare professional; employee benefits specialist; and other appropriate personnel. The staff wellness committee will serve as a subcommittee of the district wellness committee. The staff wellness committee will develop, based on input solicited from district staff and will outline ways to encourage healthy eating, physical activity, sun safety and other elements of a healthy lifestyle. The staff wellness committee will distribute its plan to the wellness program committee annually. // ** Tobacco ** // Tobacco use prevention education will focus on all grades with particular emphasis on fourth through eighth grades and reinforcement in all later grades. Instructional activities will be participatory and developmentally appropriate. Tobacco use prevention education programs will be implemented in accordance with Board policy, relevant administrative procedures and law. Implemented: June 8, 2006 Belton School District #124
 * DISTRICT WELLNESS PROGRAM **
 * <span style="font-family: 'CGTimes,Bold','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'CGTimes,Bold';">Physical Activity **
 * 1) Develop a sequential program of appropriate physical education for every student. The program will:
 * 1) Provide time in elementary schools for supervised recess. All students will have at least 40 (recommended: 60) minutes per day of supervised recess. Recess will be scheduled before lunch and held outdoors when possible.
 * 1) Provide opportunities and encouragement for students to voluntarily participate in before and after-school physical activity programs, such as intramural activities, interscholastic athletics and clubs by:
 * 1) Strive to provide joint school and community recreational activities by:
 * 1) Prohibit the use of physical activity as a form of discipline or punishment and ensure that physical education and half of the daily recess time allotted will not be withheld as punishment.
 * 1) Discourage periods of inactivity that exceed two (2) or more hours. When activities such as mandatory schoolwide testing make it necessary for students to remain indoors for long periods of time, staff should give students periodic breaks during which they are encouraged to stand and be moderately active.
 * 1) Provide and encourage--verbally and through the provision of space, equipment and activities--daily periods of moderate to vigorous physical activity for all participants in onsite after-school child care and enrichment programs sponsored by the district.
 * 1) Provide opportunities and encouragement for staff to be physically active by:
 * //<span style="font-family: 'CGTimes,BoldItalic','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'CGTimes,BoldItalic';">Staff Development and Training //**
 * //<span style="font-family: 'CGTimes,BoldItalic','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'CGTimes,BoldItalic';">Staff Wellness //**