The Long Beach Unified School District passed a revised student wellness policy on Wednesday based on feedback and updates provided by the Local School Wellness Policy Triennial Assessment.
Every district that receives federal funding for school lunches and breakfast programs is required to complete a triennial assessment on school wellness.
The assessment has multiple components. Firstly, the wellness council—consisting of teachers, nutrition services staff, district staff, parents and students—compared LBUSD’s current policy to two other models.
Changes were made to “enhance commitment to a comprehensive student well-being” according to Carmen Hernandez, language access and engagement administrator and member of the wellness council.
Hernandez said the council really wanted to “elevate student perspectives” and that although there was a bit of conflict with school schedules, they will continue to work with students to ensure their voices are heard throughout.
The Local School Wellness Policy has several components such as nutrition education and promotion, physical activity, food and beverage marketing and nutrition standards for foods sold and given away on school sites.
According to the 2022 Wellness Policy Report, which summarizes the findings of the triennial assessment, LBUSD is 100% in compliance with:
- Federal nutrition guidelines on all foods distributed on campus during the school day.
- Availability of fresh drinking water during mealtime in or near food service areas.
- Encouragement of school organizations to use healthy food items or non-food items for fundraising purposes.
Schools also need to submit a report of foods sold on campuses to Nutrition Services to verify they meet or exceed state and federal nutrition standards. LBUSD has an 83% compliance rate.
The report also highlights some of the wellness goals the district has met, including the development of a 2022-2025 action plan and establishing a Wellness Coordinator position to advance and support the goals of the policy.
The district is also working to recruit a local health official to join the District Wellness Council. The council will explore opportunities to incorporate nutrition education at the high school level.
District surveys stakeholders on nutrition education at LBUSD schools
Data to establish what these goals are and their compliance stem from a survey sent out to parents, teachers, administrators and students.
Board member Megan Kerr, who is a member of the wellness council, said the process has been “an opportunity to expand the work and to move into the future of what we know our students have been asking for and have needed.”
Of the 310 survey responses, there were 131 students, 94 teachers, 78 principals, and 7 parents. The survey reflected greater student participation, but Hernandez said there was still work to be done to better engage parents.
According to the administrators’ responses to the survey, there is “minimal to no” nutrition education at the elementary and high school level. However, a high percentage said that there is “satisfactory to thorough” nutrition education at the K-8/middle school level. The survey also revealed that parents feel they have “some to no” input in wellness decisions at the elementary (43%) and K-8/middle schools (63%).
“We were doing this under an intense timeline but as we roll out the new office we will be putting systems in place to do much better.”
— Kristi Khal, assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and professional development
Of the 18 middle school health teacher survey responses, 72% said that the curriculum is adequate but said that “textbooks are older than kids” and cited too much material for one grade level.
The School Wellness Team has already been working to update the curriculum for 5th and 7th-grade health classes. Professional development on updated curriculum implementation was provided to all 5th and 7th-grade teachers. The health textbook review and adoption is currently underway for the 2022-2023 school year.
In addition, by board policy and in compliance with state law, there are new required student prevention lessons on bullying, sexual harassment and suicide for the upcoming 2022-2023 school year.
Hernandez intends to improve parent engagement moving forward by reaching out to providing spaces for in-person community feedback and not only relying on surveys.
“We were doing this under an intense timeline but as we roll out the new office we will be putting systems in place to do much better,” said Kristi Khal, assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and professional development.
Related Stories:
1 comment
Comments are closed.