RPEMS Wellness Committee Meeting Agenda

1 RPEMS Wellness Committee Meeting Agenda

Thursday, January 9, 2014 at 8:15 am

P Principal’s Conference Room

I WELCOME Attendees: Maiju Lehmijoki-Gardner, Luke Hollis, Candace Gormley, Emily Aubrey, Nancy Lewin, Melina Turtle, Caroline Wayner, Jane Marinelli, Jason Goldstein, Nancy Kass (recording secretary), Nicholas D’Ambrosio, Ashley Handwerk, Kirigo Kabuga Special welcome to Candace Gorley, who is a nutrition/public health student and is doing an internship at BCPC North Avenue now. Also helping with drafting of District’s wellness policies.

II PAST AND CURRENT ACTIVITIES UPDATES

Salad Bar Update – Five Days a Week (Maiju)

Maiju reported that Ms. Ringgold reports being understaffed. Federal regulations someone to be staffing the salad bar at all time, although there was one day when the solution was to allow kids to use it without someone there. Salad bar seems to be well used.

Recess Update – Snow Postponed December Training with Playworks (Ms. Furno)

Training was postponed due to snow day. It’s being rescheduled as Ms. Furno tries to reconnect with Sean from Playworks. Date TBA. BTW, an indoor game is being taught today to 2nd graders at 10am to try to get kids moving on indoor days. Have also been doing some recess assemblies while teachers are doing individual MSA assessments with kids. Mr. D thinks it has been quite effective. We might want to keep track of things like nurse referrals, class climate, etc. Particular hats off to Ms. Furno who has been doing a lot of work.

Staff Interest Survey and Staff Zumba – Zumba starts on 1/8 (Jane; Kirigo)

Will try to more to get people to sign up. Luke asked Kirigo to write something up for the morning announcements and Sonia will create a flyer. Need to advertise that it’s free for teachers. There will be a free master class in 2 weeks as there was a misunderstanding 1/8. Maybe worth sending something now.

In-class breakfast for pre-k (Luke)

Progress not going smoothly for in-class breakfast. Pre-K cereal is cereal and milk and it’s a mess. Quality of food not great. have met with road bumps. 22 students in pre K and 8 participate in breakfast. Stalling out a bit. 5-6 weeks. Someone from cafeteria. Should we survey. Talk to Ms. Ringgold about choices of product. Luke will talk to Ms. Ringgold about what other choices might be available that are both more nutritious and less messy. Luke will also ask Ms. Manger if she can hold off making a decision for another month.

Wellness Committee Website – Maiju is behind with this but will catch up (Maiju)

Maiju said website is not complete but in progress. 2 Spring Activities, including The Archery, Walk to School Day, Fifth Grade Fun Run, and the Running Festival (Luke)

Archery program is doing a 2 day program with PE teachers, after a $3K grant, for middle school first. First will be a club. May be introduced into PE later; goal is for middle school students to get it in PE eventually. The PE teachers and club directors have been given safety and best practices training. Walk to School day is April 25. Semi-annual event. Half of school walked last time. Amy Bonitz Palmer will continue to spearhead it. Runners’ clubs help to volunteer. Bike trailer will be at school this spring to help teach bike safety and biking more generally. That is the week of April 22-25. Can we get stickers? Caroline suggested maybe getting 8th grade ambassadors? 5th grade fun run on May 2. Need parent volunteers, need orange slices, etc. Charm City Run has agreed to bring their balloon for free. Under discussion whether they could bring a timing system. 6th grade field day would be great to offer. Mr. D. says it’s a great event and nice end of year celebration. Parent involvement drops off as kids get older. We need a volunteer to be key point person for that. Maybe parent involvement committee can help. Running festival ; generally a big success. We had 165 runners. We had 800% increase in men running. 250% increase in runners. 300% increase in children running. Brought community together at tent, at run, etc. Only problem is that it’s highly work intensive. Maiju spent huge, huge amount of time. Maiju will be talking to annual fund about possibility of hiring someone to do this. We also need to provide volunteers for some other runs. Maiju did 3 hours/day for 4 months.

Alliance for a Healthier Generation

There is a training on January 16. Is anyone available to attend on Thursday, January 16. Participation also fits our goal of providing outreach. In Baltimore, all day.

III SUSTAINABILITY PLANNING

Now starting year 3 of wellness. Need to think about steps going forward. Alliance for a Healthier Generation program has been useful. Can we go for silver? Will be nearly impossible to achieve the physical education requirements for silver. Also need to think about task distribution. Will need a co-chair to replace Maiju in the future. That person can help determine whether to stick with Alliance for a Healthier Generation. Should we look for a broader framework that includes health education more broadly. Jason Goldstein reported that wellness is a really broad umbrella and could include many, many things. We as a committee need to determine our own priorities. There could be a subcommittee to think through how to set priorities. Jane said the more buy in we have from teachers to make sure it’s meeting long term needs by them. Parent teacher should be identified by March if possible. Nancy Lewin said that the engagement committee could feed us any info related to wellness that comes up there. There is an upcoming PTA meeting; someone could mention something there. Maybe get a subcommittee together soon to brainstorm who could be a good person to co-chair wellness committee. Maybe it’s worth creating a job description.

Summary of Angela Fulmer’s Outcomes Evaluation Practicum and Recommendations

Sustainability and formalizing the Wellness Committee Tasks

Sustainability and Healthy School Program Framework

Sustainability and Meeting Rotation

V HEADS UP FOR THE NEXT MEETING: SPRING EVENTS, COMMITTEE TASKS, FRAMEWORK 3

VI CONCLUSION March 6 at 8:15am