August 19, 2005

Back to the Table of Contents Page

Back to the Weekly Home Page

Classifieds

Publication Date: Friday, August 19, 2005

Schools look to implement ‘wellness policy’

As childhood obesity and declining student health have become growing problems in the country, the Pleasanton school district is addressing the problem locally by developing a wellness policy aimed at promoting nutrition, nutrition education and physical activity in the schools. The district began working on the policy in January of this year with implementation scheduled for fall 2006.

“The district is concerned about nutrition and it shows in what we’ve done and what we’re doing,” said Frank Castro, coordinator of Child Nutrition services for the school district. “Our philosophy for the last four years is to increase the amount of healthy choices available and make sure students and staff are aware of making healthy choices.”

The main catalyst for researching a new wellness policy came from federal requirements attached to the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization of 2004, Castro said. The new law requires schools to develop a plan that at the very least includes plans to improve nutritional content of school meals, promote nutrition education and physical activity, establish ways to measure the implementation and involve parents and students. Local school districts decide the details of the plan.

In order to create a policy that addresses student needs and community concerns, Castro has been meeting with “stakeholders,” like the Lifetime Planning committee for the district’s strategic plan, as well as parent groups from the Pleasanton PTA Council. As it turned out, the district's work on the wellness policy dovetailed with what the Pleasanton PTA Council was already doing to address wellness in the schools, said Jamie Hintzke, chair of the Council's Pleasanton Healthy Lifestyle committee. There will also be at least one public forum for community members to voice their opinions that has yet to be scheduled.

“We have had four meetings so far and there has been concern about the availability of fast food in the district and the amount of sugary foods,” Castro said.

Sugary foods and drinks in schools have been a concern of the state, as well as the district. Much has been made in recent months of the newly proposed state bill that will limit soda sales on high school campuses to a half-hour before and after school. However, Pleasanton high schools have already stopped selling sodas altogether. The district made this change in 2003 when the state legislature passed a bill banning the sale of soda in elementary and middle schools. Since the district can implement policies that are more stringent then state policies, the district decided to extend the ban to high schools as well, Castro said. Instead of soda, students can buy bottled water, certain sport drinks, 100 percent juice products and milk.

“It didn’t take long for bottled water to be the number one drink purchased at the high schools,” Castro said. “It has even become kind of a popular thing, like a badge of health.”

Fast food in school lunches is another hot button issue. At the elementary school level, families receive a monthly menu listing the hot lunches offered along with a tally of how many calories, protein, sodium, other nutrients and vitamins and percentage of fat are in the lunches for the week. This menu can then serve as a guideline for parents when deciding what to feed their child for breakfast and dinner, Hintzke said.

"As a parent you have to look at the school lunch menu and monitor what your child eats," Hintzke said. "If they have pizza for lunch at school, then don't give a high fat dinner that night. Balance it at home."

High school students have many more options and freedom in what they choose as fast food. McDonald's double cheese burgers, High Tech Burritos and Domino's Pizza are available on the campuses. Castro said the district is attempting to phase out the use of outside vendors and replace them with similar products. One plan is to bring in salad bars. This year salad bars will open in the elementary and middle schools and will also be offered in the high schools once campus construction projects have finished, Castro said. For Amador, that means November of this year, but for Foothill there is no definite date yet.

Castro is hoping to address nutrition education and physical activity components of the policy by meeting with principals and individual teachers when the school year starts because both aspects will have an effect on classroom time.

“There are already nutrition education components integrated into school lessons, but they are not being monitored,” Castro said. “How it is integrated is up to individual teachers. Part of the wellness plan is to monitor what goes on.”

The district hasn’t decided yet where the education component would fit and is even considering initially adding it in the after-school programs where the classroom time is more flexible, Castro said.

The Child Nutrition department of the district will serve as the watchdog for the program by reviewing it every year and making changes as it progresses.

“We will hopefully get students who are more fit and aware of caloric intake,” Castro said. “Maybe students will choose to walk to school or come to lunch asking, ‘Where’s the salad?’ instead of, 'Where’s the chips?'”

While the federal requirements mostly focus on physical health, Hintzke said she hopes the district will decide to take it a step further and create a well-rounded policy that addresses all the components of a healthy life-style, including stress and mental health.

"The thing that bothers me is that when people talk of wellness they immediately go for nutrition," she said. "But it is about all aspects of wellness: physical activity, safety and emotional well being."
What do you think about school nutrition?

Community members who have opinions and ideas for the school district’s wellness policy can contact Frank Castro, coordinator of Child Nutrition Services for the school district, by phone at 426-2285 or by e-mail at fcastro@pleasanton.k12.ca.us.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.