Erie School District outlines year-two work under Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child grant

Caitlin Faulk, the Erie School District’s district wellness manager, told the board committee the district is in year two of a Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child grant and has focused the past year on revitalizing the district wellness council and launching workgroups to implement the district wellness policy.

Faulk said the council split into subcommittees that voted to prioritize five areas of initial work and created action plans tied to policy goals. The subcommittees are focused on community engagement, Smart Snacks compliance, “smarter lunchrooms,” recess rules and classroom physical activity, and support for chronic health conditions. "School wellness is foundational for course performance, attendance, and behavior," Faulk said.

Why it matters: The council’s work targets day-to-day conditions that affect students’ learning, from how long they have to eat lunch to whether teachers use snacks as incentives. The council’s steps toward implementing the wellness policy aim to reduce policy violations that could affect federal program compliance.

Faulk said community engagement work includes a draft community resource guide schools can use to connect with after-school providers, assemblies and family events. The Smart Snacks subcommittee is working to stop use of sugary snacks as classroom rewards and to educate staff and parents about the USDA Smart Snacks guidelines; Faulk said the district’s contracted food-service provider, METS, already meets Smart Snacks for meals but that some classroom and teacher-provided incentives currently violate the policy. "We don't serve soda; there are no vending machines, and it's not served through METS. But some soda is given away as classroom incentives, which would be a violation of the policy," Faulk said.

On lunchroom timing, Faulk noted the district policy requires at least 10 minutes to eat breakfast and 20 minutes to eat lunch from the time students receive their meals. METS will report at year end on whether service changes or staggered lunch periods are needed so students receive the required time. The district is piloting “smarter lunchroom” low- and no-cost strategies to make meals more appealing and to speed service.

The recess subcommittee is creating a short video and a recess activity book to explain the district policy requiring 15 minutes of recess for elementary students each day and prohibiting recess removal as punishment. The classroom physical activity subcommittee is focusing on embedding movement into subject lessons rather than taking time away for separate “brain breaks.” The chronic-health-conditions subcommittee is providing open-airways (asthma) training this year and plans future training on diabetes and food allergies.

Faulk said roughly $15,000 in grant funding has supported fruit-and-vegetable programming at schools and that more than 300 employees have participated in district wellness step challenges. She invited board members to participate in step challenges, attend wellness council meetings and help promote wellness work across district policy decisions.

Questions from board members included whether fruit juices served by METS meet Smart Snacks limits (Faulk said METS beverages meet the guidelines) and how step challenges accommodate employees with mobility constraints (Faulk described a physical-activity conversion chart that allows non-step activities to be converted to step equivalents).