WELLNESS POLICY

The board promotes healthy students by supporting wellness, good nutrition and regular physical activity as a part of the total learning environment.  Hull Christian School (HCS) supports a healthy environment where students learn and participate in positive dietary and lifestyle practices.  By facilitating learning through the support and promotion of good nutrition and physical activity, schools contribute to the basic health status of students.  Improved health optimizes student performance potential.

HCS provides a comprehensive learning environment for developing and practicing lifelong wellness behaviors.  The entire school environment, not just the classroom, shall be aligned with healthy school goals to positively influence a student's understanding, beliefs and habits as they relate to good nutrition and regular physical activity.  

HCS supports and promotes proper dietary habits contributing to students' health status and academic performance.  All foods available on school grounds and at school-sponsored activities during the instructional day should meet or exceed HCS nutrition standards.  Foods should be served with consideration toward nutritional integrity, variety, appeal, taste, safety and packaging to ensure high-quality meals.  

HCS will make every effort to eliminate any social stigma attached to, and prevent the overt identification of, students who are eligible for free and reduced-price meals.  

HCS will develop a local wellness policy with input from the board, parents, leaders in food/exercise authority and employees.  

Nutrition Education and Promotion

HCS will provide nutrition education and engage in nutrition promotion that:
•	is part of not only health education classes, but also classroom instruction in subjects such as math, science, language arts, social sciences and elective subjects; 
•	promotes fruits, vegetables, whole-grain products, low-fat and fat-free dairy products, healthy food preparation methods and health-enhancing nutrition practices; and,
•	includes training for teachers and other staff. 

Physical Activity

Physical Education
HCS will provide physical education that:
•	is for all students in grades K-8 for the entire school year;
•	is taught or supervised by a certified physical education teacher; and, 
•	includes students with disabilities, students with special health-care needs may be provided in alternative educational settings.

Daily Recess
HCS will provide recess for students that:
•	is at least 20 minutes a day; 
•	is preferably outdoors; 
•	encourages moderate to vigorous physical activity verbally and through the provision of space and equipment; and,
•	discourages extended periods (i.e., periods of two or more hours) of inactivity. 
When activities, such as mandatory school-wide testing, make it necessary for students to remain indoors for long periods of time, schools should give students periodic breaks during which they are encouraged to stand and be moderately active.

Other School-Based Activities that Promote Student Wellness

Integrating Physical Activity into Classroom Settings
For students to receive the nationally recommended amount of daily physical activity and for students to fully embrace regular physical activity as a personal behavior, students need opportunities for physical activity beyond the physical education class.  Toward that end, HCS will:
•	offer classroom health education that complements physical education by reinforcing the knowledge and self-management skills needed to maintain a physically active lifestyle and to reduce time spent on sedentary activities;
•	discourage sedentary activities, such as watching television, playing computer games, etc.;
•	provide opportunities for physical activity to be incorporated into other subject lessons; and,
•	encourage classroom teachers to provide short physical activity breaks between lessons or classes, as appropriate.

Nutrition Guidelines for All Foods Available on Campus

School Meals
Meals served through the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs will:
•	be appealing and attractive to children; 
•	be served in clean and pleasant settings; 
•	meet, at a minimum, nutrition requirements established by local, state and federal law:
•	offer a variety of fruits and vegetables; and,
•	serve only low-fat (1%) and fat-free milk and nutritionally equivalent non-dairy alternatives (as defined by the USDA).

Breakfast
To ensure that all children have breakfast at home, in order to meet their nutritional needs and enhance their ability to learn, HCS will:
•	encourage parents to provide a healthy breakfast for their children through newsletter articles, take-home materials or other means.

Free and Reduced-Priced Meals
HCS will make every effort to eliminate any social stigma attached to, and prevent the overt identification of, students who are eligible for free and reduced-price meals.  

Meal Times and Scheduling
Hull Christian School:
•	will provide students with at least 20 minutes to eat after sitting down for lunch; 
•	will schedule meal periods at appropriate times, e.g., lunch should be scheduled between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.; should not schedule tutoring, club or organizational meetings or activities during mealtimes, unless students may eat during such activities; 
•	will provide students access to hand washing or hand sanitizing before they eat meals or snacks; and,
•	will take reasonable steps to accommodate the tooth-brushing regimens of students with special oral health needs (e.g., orthodontia or high tooth decay risk). 

Qualification of Food Service Staff
Qualified nutrition professionals will administer the meal programs.  As part of Hull Christian School’s responsibility to operate a food service program, HCS will:
•	provide continuing professional development for all nutrition professionals; and,
•	provide staff development programs that include appropriate certification and/or training programs for child nutrition directors, nutrition managers and cafeteria workers, according to their levels of responsibility.

Sharing of Foods
HCS discourages students from sharing their foods or beverages with one another during meal or snack times, given concerns about allergies and other restrictions on some children’s diets.

Food Safety
All foods made available on campus adhere to food safety and security guidelines.
•	All foods made available on campus comply with the USDA, state and local food safety and sanitation regulations. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plans and guidelines are implemented to prevent food illness in schools.  
•	For the safety and security of the food and facility, access to the food service operations are limited to child nutrition staff and authorized personnel.  

Plan for Measuring Implementation

Monitoring
The principal will ensure compliance with established school-wide nutrition and physical activity wellness policies.  In the school:
•	the principal will ensure compliance with those policies in the school; 
•	food service staff, at the school or school district level, will ensure compliance with nutrition policies within food service areas and will report on this matter to the principal;
•	the school will report on the most recent USDA School Meals Initiative (SMI) review findings and any resulting changes.  If the school has not received a SMI review from the state agency within the past five years, the school district will request from the state agency that a SMI review be scheduled as soon as possible;
•	the principal will develop a summary report every three years on school-wide compliance with the school’s established nutrition and physical activity wellness policies; and, 
•	the report will be provided to the school board and also distributed to all school supporters upon request.  

Policy Review
This policy will be reviewed every three years to assess policy compliance, implementation progress, and to determine areas in need of improvement.  As part of that review, HCS will review the nutrition and physical activity policies and practices and the provision of an environment that supports healthy eating and physical activity.  HCS will revise the wellness policies and develop work plans to facilitate their implementation.

The Wellness Policy will also be reviewed by our Advisory Committee every year.  The Advisory Committee consists of a board member, community member, teacher, students and a parent.  

Adoption Date 4/17/06		      	Policy No.  6316.2
Reviewed    2 /17 /10     8 /21 /17       /    /     Revised     3/  16/  15        /    /          /    /__  
Reviewed   9  / 19 /11        /    /          /    /      	Revised      /    /           /    /          /    /__