Livewell Colorado Health and Wellness Committee

LiveWell Colorado Health and Wellness Committee Meeting 1/17/11

Contact: Tracy Boyle, [email protected], (303) 888-4803 Rachel Simpson [email protected]

In attendance:  Jeremy Vann, DPS Wellness Coordinator  Tracy Boyle, committee co-chair  Lisa Simpson (via phone) committee co-chair  Cari Riedlin, Principal  Anne McDonald  Doris Weber  Nicole Vap  Drew Sidener  Lisa Emerson  Meg Schomp  Natalie Sneed, School Nurse  Linda Poletti  Deb Efrid Others interested, but not in attendance:  MaryCatherine Husney  Mike Hartman, PE Teacher  Linda Meyer, Teacher  C Foltz  Heidi Barker  Libby Neid

The first meeting of the Health and Wellness Committee was very encouraging, with participation from a wide variety of important stakeholders, including a great group of parents, our Lowry Principal, nurse, the DPS Wellness Coordinator, and interest from several others. Having a strong coalition of stakeholders will be critical in creating, communication and enforcing school “policy” regarding healthy eating and physical activity in our school. The committee has elected to focus on three specific areas to start:

Safety/Safe School Environment This topic is in the H&W Committee because it typically creates opportunities for kids to walk and bike to school, in addition to staying safe on school property. Issues the committee addressed include:

Safe Routes to School  Safe Routes for Lowry has been an important topic. Committee members have been raising ongoing concerns that there are many unsafe areas on the streets around Lowry, making it dangerous for kids to walk and bike to and from school. Typically assessment data is needed to prove that intersections/streets are dangerous.  Rachel and Jeremy gave an update on the grant Lowry put applied for from Colorado Dept. of Transportation for Safe Routes to School assessment, education and support. If this grant comes through, we will be able to use the money for possibly a crossing guard, cones, parent education/communication, signage and anything else that is not infrastructure. The grant could be upwards of $60,000, which includes three schools that applied for the grant together.  Rachel, Cari and Jeremy will work to approach the Lowry Redevelopment Authority for additional funds.

Other Walking Programs  Tracy brought up other ideas to encourage walking to school, including a “walking school bus” and Walking Wednesdays or other ideas to get kids regularly walking to/from school.

School Building/Drop Off/Pick-Up Safety  Doris and Cari will work on concerns about school exits and after school program procedures. Drop off and pick up are especially troublesome with bad parking situations, parents not following signage and crowded school exits. Issues to be addressed include: o Making sure after school programs know fire drill procedures and other school safety policies o Setting standards for school program release o Better communication with parents o Include safety topics in eblast o Meg wants to re-print parent communication around parking rules o Can we have DPS safety come out and ticket to address aggressive drivers? o Can we look at making the roads around the school one-way? o Develop a better exit plan for end of school day.

Birthday Party Guidelines Tracy, Linda and Deb will lead the effort to address birthday party guidelines for the 2011-2012 school year. This includes timing of parties, food guidelines and activity suggestions. It also can include rewards used in the classroom. Issues to consider include:  Look at other schools and how they developed guidelines.  Could look at timing of parties (once a month vs. each child’s day), in addition to guidelines on food, non-food options. o Must consider the Lowry families that only celebrate birthdays at school and thus want to bring treats like cupcakes.  Parent communication and teacher buy-in will be key to success o Will need to do a separate communication session at Alton Court

Physical Activity on Indoor Recess Days We were not able to discuss this topic in detail at the meeting, but typically Lowry has about 30 indoor recess days a year so we want to develop indoor physical activity options for students. We will want to get Coach Hartman’s input on this topic.

Other Issues Principal Riedlin also mentioned she would be looking at eventually adjusting the school schedule to hold recess before lunch. Recent studies show that kids eat more of their lunch (including the fruits and veggies) if they get their energy out and build a hunger at recess. They will also be better ready to learn after lunch.

Next Steps The aim is to tackle these issues in small groups and then regrouping to discuss progress. Because this is a new committee, we will need to convene several meetings to further identify and talk through issues.

 Cari and Doris will work on school safety issues  Rachel and Jeremy will work on the grant for Safe Routes to School opportunities  Tracy, Linda and Deb will work on school party/classroom food guidelines

Tracy will set up the next meeting for these folks to report on progress. We will try to find a time that will accommodate more of the staff who want to participate. The next meeting will likely be in late February.