District Adopts Wellness Policy

The South Kingstown Schools recently adopted a Wellness Policy in response to state and federal statutes. The purpose of the policy is to promote healthy schools by supporting regular physical activity, good nutrition, and wellness as part of the total learning environment. The policy is based on the belief that the healthier the students the more productive the learning. The requirement for all school districts to have wellness policies grows from several national issues, including: (1) Increasing levels of obesity, (2) Decreasing levels of physical activity, and (3) The nutritional content of foods available to children in school. The policy targets these issues in several ways, using a comprehensive approach. Notable policy initiatives include:

· Establishing a Wellness Committee, chaired by a School Committee member, that developed the policy, oversees its implementation, and makes recommendations to the School Committee.

· Sets standards for the food served in school. This includes standards covering vending sales, and other food sources such as celebrations. Many of our schools were ahead of the policy, having previously limited what foods can be brought into school. School lunch is governed by separate USDA standards

· Sets standards for health education; calling for a coordinated health curriculum that is taught in kindergarten through high school. The district aims to teach, encourage, improve health literacy and support healthy eating by students and staff. This includes providing information to families.

· The policy requires physical education and physical activity for all students throughout the school year. Physical education is to set learning goals for students and develop skills that promote lifelong physical activity.

· The Wellness Committee developed a host of alternatives for fundraising, celebrations, and other ways to implement the policy. These are available on skschools.net.

While parent education is a key component of the policy, it draws a clear line between home and school. The policy sets standards for what the school serves to students, but not what food students bring in from home. The policy is stricter on what is available and served during school than what occurs after school and in the evening. For example, if a school has an evening pot luck supper for families, school nutrition standards do not apply on the assumption that parents are part of the event and greater freedom, independence and parental responsibility are expected. However, for events during the school day, nutrition standards do apply, since the school is acting “in loco parentis” and there is a higher expectation of guidance and control on the part of the school. Additionally, schools are very limited in their ability to assure the nutritional content of what is served after school hours.

While some schools were ahead of the policy on these items, here are some things different that you might see this year:

· The sale of candy to students before and during the school day is prohibited, whether through school stores, the lunch program, or fundraising.

· Vending machines will serve only water, 100% juice, and low-fat milk drinks during school, with sports drinks available after school.

· Cupcakes and other sweets can no longer be brought to school to celebrate birthdays. The policy encourages non-food items to mark such events.

· A la carte sales during lunch are limited to prevent the avoidance of USDA lunch nutrition standards. For example, students can’t just buy fries for lunch.

The Wellness Committee welcomes your comments and suggestions to the policy. You can send them to the committee through any school or the district office. Also, the committee is always looking for new members, and it is required to have its membership composed of a majority of people not employed by the schools. Individual schools are sending home information on the policy and it is available in its entirety, along with all policies, at skschools.net.

A change in state law will result in smaller school district budget increases in years ahead. New legislation restricts the property tax revenue that the School Committee can request of the town.

There are two components to the change. In one, the 5.5% tax cap drops by 0.25% annually until it reaches 4%. The quarter-percent drop will reduce the available funds in SK by slightly over $100,000. The second component removes growth in the tax base from the calculation. In the past, the cap could be applied to the tax rate, so a growing tax base produced more revenue. Now, the cap can apply only to the total revenue requested by the schools. If this restriction were in effect this year, the approved school budget would have been reduced by $380,000.

Under the tax cap legislation the School Committee is prohibited from adopting a budget that requests more of the town than the tax cap permits. Consequently, budget development will be different this year, as the administration will have to budget to the cap. The legislation also calls for the General Assembly to change arbitration and budget laws to assist schools in meeting the budget cap and to increase state aid until 50% of statewide education costs are funded.

Projects in the arts, reading, chemistry and physical fitness at South Kingstown public schools have earned the support of the South Kingstown Education Foundation, which awarded the projects a total of $6,686.25. Of this total, $2,961.25 is available through earnings on the Education Foundation’s permanent endowment established at the Rhode Island Foundation, with the balance raised from the parents of current public school children through the Education Foundation’s December 2005 Teacher Recognition Appeal.

The Education Foundation was established to support educational projects and activities that inspire student excellence and strengthen the relationship between the public schools and the community. Its permanent endowment now is valued at approximately $80,000, thanks to the generous support of many area residents and businesses and an initial $25,000 matching grant from The Rhode Island Foundation.

This the third year of grant awards and also marks the first time a grant was awarded to a student initiated project. Education Foundation grants awarded for the 2006-07 academic year support the following projects:

· Fitness Trail Project -- a balance beam and ground cover to enhance the existing fitness trail for all students and the community at Matunuck Elementary School.

· Mock Caldecott Unit -- art supplies and picture books for second grade students at Matunuck and Wakefield Elementary Schools to use in a competition for the best, student-illustrated book.

· Battle of Books Listening Library -- books, tapes, and a cassette player to encourage fourth grade students at all four elementary schools to increase their reading, either through traditional books or books on tape.

· Artists Among Us Project -- art supplies to enable West Kingston-based Courthouse Center for the Arts to provide third grade students at all four elementary schools with opportunities to explore the visual arts.

· Optical Brighteners and Water Quality Project -- materials needed for chemistry students at South Kingstown High Schools to conduct local water quality testing as part of the applied science curriculum.

· Museum of Primitive Art & Culture -- funding for the Museum’s Community Walking Tour which enhances existing social studies curriculum for third grade students at all four elementary schools.

· Venue Project – funding for South Kingstown High School and middle school students to establish a venue where students in good standing may express themselves artistically, including with music, poetry and the visual arts.

· Outdoor River Classroom -- financial support to construct and build a multi-use platform on the west bank of the Saugatucket River to function as both a community walkway and a classroom for students engaged in chemical water quality testing, qualitative wildlife observation and civic activism. The Education Foundation’s grant represents only a portion of the funding for the entire Outdoor River Classroom/Sari’s Sanctuary project.

· Curtis Corner Middle School’s 2007 All-School Play – funding for a dramatic production that will involve an estimated 200 students and 50 adults and will focus on anti-bullying concepts.

· CARES – financial assistance for a program to assist elementary and middle school teachers in understanding how to use volunteers working under the successful CARES program.

The class of 2008 will graduate from SK, and all other Rhode Island public high schools, under the state’s new Proficiency-Based Graduation System. Under the new system, students not only have to complete specific course credits to graduate, but they have to demonstrate mastery of the academic proficiencies, including arts and technology. Over the last two years, faculty and administration at SKHS have been developing our implementation of the new graduation system, and have reported on it in this newsletter, at School Committee meetings, and presentations at the high school.

The work of the state’s high schools was individually reviewed by the office of the Commissioner of Education over the summer and we just received the results of the review. The review provided feedback on all five areas of the system. The feedback included the level of support necessary to be ready for the class of 2008’s graduation and was in three levels: (1) Minimum Support – the district is making adequate progress in this area; (2) Moderate Support – the district will need some technical assistance and sustain effort in order to be ready; and (3) Maximum Support – the district will need significant local effort to get ready. The results of the feedback for South Kingstown were:

Graduation by Proficiency - Moderate Support
Support to Students - Minimum Support
Support to Staff – Moderate Support
Communication - Minimum Support
Policy /Use of Data - Minimum Support

The review indicated that SK will be asked to share its work in Student Support and Policy/Use of Data with other high schools and districts as a highlight of our implementation. Areas where our work will need to be concentrated include the implementation of Individual Learning Plans for students, clearly defining responsibility within the new system, developing common planning time for high school teachers, and integrating work of the district with the work of the school.