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Board pauses broad wellness policy changes after debate over PE staffing and food-fundraising limits

Hillsborough County School Board · December 17, 2025
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Summary

Members asked staff to continue work on an extensive wellness policy rewrite that updates nutrition, physical-education and fundraising rules to align with state and federal requirements; the board declined to send the draft to public hearing and asked for more statutory references and implementation detail.

The Hillsborough County School Board paused consideration of a comprehensive rewrite of the district wellness policy (85.10) after members raised procedural and operational concerns about physical-education staffing, enforcement of food-fundraising rules and the size and scope of the draft.

Shaney Hall, Student Nutrition Services, summarized committee work and said staff updated the policy to reflect state and federal regulations. "These changes were just that our policy currently wasn't reflective of the current regulations, statutes, and laws that govern the wellness policy, statewide," Hall said.

A central dispute centered on recent Department of Agriculture enforcement clarifying that food fundraisers cannot be sold to students during the school day and may only be sold 30 minutes after the last lunch, a shift that staff said would prohibit items like Kona Ice sales during lunch. "Food fundraisers may not be sold to students until 30 minutes after the conclusion of the last lunch," staff explained while describing state guidance.

Board members also raised concerns that the statutory PE time is effectively being carried out by some kindergarten classroom teachers rather than by PE specialists, and urged the district to examine workload and staffing allocation so certified PE instruction is provided where the statute requires it. Members asked that the policy embed statute citations and the waiver process (including marching-band waivers) and requested more time for review.

Outcome: Because of the policy’s scale and multiple statutory cross-references, the board did not reach consensus to move it forward and asked staff to continue work and return a clearer draft with embedded statute references and implementation details.