Attendance:

All committee members present for today’s meeting.

Additional attendees:

N/A

Dr. Pyle opened the meeting by briefly reviewing the minutes from the previous meeting on

12/7/21. Discussed background of wellness program including goals, and established action

steps.

We discussed goals and action steps for the program’s three areas - Nutrition and Education,

Physical Activity, and Tobacco and Vaping Education and Prevention.

NUTRITION

● Goal to increase school lunch participation by 6% and breakfast participation by 3%

remains and is being compared to the 2019-20 school year. Students are required to pay

for meals again. The baseline data was meals served in the 19-20 school year, prior to the

pandemic. So far, lunch has increased by 2% and breakfast increased by 20% for the

2022-23 school year.

● Long lunch lines continue to be an issue and deter some students from eating school

meals, but not sure how to adjust this process to speed up the wait times.

● Elementary Grab N Go breakfast program has been discontinued. A meeting is set to

speak with the kitchen managers and administration to make adjustments. The Nutrition

and Wellness Director stated there is always an option available to take with them if

needed.

● High School can remain in the commons until 7:50. It was discussed and found to not be

beneficial to add additional time past 7:50. It was mentioned to look into the morning

logistics and procedures that limit the availability for student time to eat breakfast.

● We had intended to implement new food taste tests to encourage participation, this has

not occured. The Nutrition and Wellness Director has brought in new meal options and

will implement new specials on Mondays at the High School. If the special goes over

well it will be added to the regular menus. To gauge interest in new foods it was

suggested to place QR codes on the lunchroom tables that may be scanned by students to

access surveys. The director also plans to attend parent/teacher conferences to talk to

parents about what their students are eating and show the items offered to alleviate some

misconceptions about school lunches. It was suggested to have the taste testing then and

during the school day.

Wellness Committee Meeting Minutes

September 14, 2022

● Continue to encourage teachers and other staff members to use non-food rewards in the

classroom. Surveys show most agree it's best to use non-food rewards, but needed

suggestions on what those rewards could be. Lindsey Stevenson has sent reward

suggestions to those who participated. This goal was agreed upon to keep in place.

● Over $100,000 was spent to purchase bottle filling stations available to students. This

goal was removed.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION / ACTIVITY

● We discussed the fitness zone goals and that they are measured by grade level. Pending

grade level, we have seen increases between 50-85%. Excluding 12th grade, all grade

levels have exceeded target. Baseline data for these goals were set at the beginning of this

school year. Physical Education teachers will reevaluate the students at the end of the

school year to see percentage of change. The Junior High and High School numbers

could be skewed a little because some kids only take PE one semester. May reconsider

the way we evaluate seniors’ Body Fat % and BMI since some seniors don't take Physical

Education until senior year and may be well beyond healthy limits and cannot change

within one year. Recommended to change to a VO2 max test. Research is being done to

find testing for Junior High and High School students age 13 and older.

● PE teachers continue to work on a google document to be able to track performance year

to year at the HS level. Suggested to share data regarding progression across grade levels

keeping in conjunction with the fitness gram. Dr. Pyle to communicate to determine if a

different measure needs to be used or adjustment in the targets.

● We will continue to incorporate student wellness challenges at the High School. It is a

challenge between homeroom classes and minutes of physical activity. It is reported

participation is low per class averaging around 13 students. We had a discussion on how

to encourage participation and make time available to participate.

● K-5 students continue to participate in physical activities during breaks such as

GoNoodle, brain breaks or fresh air breaks. May need to follow up with JH and HS

administration and teachers to make sure students have the option to stand up or just take

a quick break during each block if needed.

OTHER SCHOOL BASED ACTIVITIES

● Vaping is our main target for this objective. The goal is to decrease occurrences by 10%

by the end of the school year.

● Have had a significant increase of 61% in all buildings. There were 72 offenses in the

2020-21 school year, increasing to 116 in 2021-22.

Wellness Committee Meeting Minutes

September 14, 2022

● We discussed an education program regarding the misconception that vaping is a safe

alternative to tobacco use.

● We will continue with the PSA information at Junior High and High School. Parents who

attended High School parent teacher conferences also received a flyer with information

regarding the dangers of vaping.

● The High School currently has an education program in place. The Junior High and

Intermediate are also implementing the same program. We found that education at the

Intermediate level may help reduce numbers overall. May have a separate education

program not in conjunction with the DARE program. We are also seeing an uptick in

drug related incidents with THC pens being more accessible with dispensaries in the area.

We could promote an education program at younger age levels and more of an addiction

program for older students, especially repeat offenders. Trying to determine why kids are

doing this from the start could circle back to mental health issues or other stress factors in

their life. We had discussion on alternatives to being suspended and instead educating

students. Currently, when a student receives their 1st vaping offense, they are given the

option to be suspended or participate in an educational program in school and connection

of the student and parents with sensation resources.

● We had discussion regarding the student addiction to vaping and the needed action step to

be taken to connect them with resources. This may be an anonymous process pending the

age of the student. A website was introduced regarding available resources for vaping

education. Also discussed the benefits of certifying staff to teach about vaping in small

groups.

● We have installed a vape detector in the High School and are looking into adding more in

the High School and possibly Junior High and Intermediate. There are currently two in

the district located in the High School and the Alternative School. The detectors send

alerts to administrators. Discussion was had regarding the effectiveness of the detectors

compared to investing in educational resources surrounding vaping due to decreased

deterrent value. Discussion surrounded ways to potentially decrease the use of vaping by

introducing education resources into homerooms, introducing speakers to demonstrate the

real effects of vaping, and involving the multimedia class. Also discussed the various

products that hold vaping materials such as hoodies, backpacks, and pens/sharpies.

NEXT STEPS

● Follow up with inputs and make revisions brought back to the committee.

● Reconvene to talk specifically about vaping to discover the best action steps. Dr Pyle to

speak of policy changes with local and state level elected officials