Adopted: 11 April 2007
Modified: 8 August  2014
Approved: 12 Jun 2017
Modified: 8 November 2023

Local Wellness Policy

The Board recognizes its obligations under the Federal Child Nutrition and Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Reauthorization Act of 2004 and Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 and desires to provide a program promoting healthy eating and physical activity in district students.  Accordingly, the Board along with the Superintendent or the Superintendent’s designee developed this Wellness Policy.

1. School Health Councils

Wayne School District and/or individual schools within the district will create, strengthen, or work within existing school health councils to develop, implement, monitor, review, and as necessary, revise school nutrition and physical activity policies.  The councils also will serve as resources to school sites for implementing those policies.  (A school heath council consists of a group of individuals representing the school and community, and should include parents, students, representatives of the school food authority, members of the school board, school administrators, teachers, health professionals, and members of the public.)

2. Leadership

The Superintendent or designee will convene the School Health Council and facilitate development of and updates to the wellness policy, and will ensure each school’s compliance with the policy.

The designated official for oversight is the current Food Service Director.

3. Annual Notification of Policy

The District will inform families and the public each year of basic information about this policy, including its content, any updates to the policy and implementation status.  The District will make this information available via the district website.

4. Triennial Progress Assessments

At least once every three years, the District will evaluate compliance with the wellness policy to assess the implementation of the policy and include:

• The extent to which schools under the jurisdiction of the District are in compliance with the wellness policy.
• The extent to which the District’s wellness policy compares to the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s model wellness policy; and
• A description of the progress made in attaining the goals of the District’s wellness policy.

5. School Meals

Meals served through the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs will

• Be appealing and attractive to children;
• Be served in clean and pleasant settings;
• Meet, at a minimum, nutrition requirements established by local, state, and federal statues and regulations;
• Offer a variety of fruits and vegetables;
• Serve only low-fat (1) and fat-free milk and nutritionally-equivalent non-dairy alternatives (to be defined by USDA); and
• Ensure that all grains served will be whole grain rich.

Schools should engage students and parents, through taste-tests of new entrees and surveys, in selecting foods sold through the school meal programs in order to identify new, healthful, and appealing food choices.  In addition, schools should share information about the nutritional content of meals with parents and students.  Such information will be made available on menus posted on the Wayne School District website.

1. Free and Reduced-priced Meals.  Schools will make every effort to eliminate any social stigma attached to, and prevent the overt identification of, students who are eligible for free and reduced-price school meals.  Toward this end, schools may utilize electronic identification and payment systems.
2. Meal Times and Scheduling.  Schools:

• Will provide students with at least 10 minutes to eat after sitting down for breakfast and 20 minutes after sitting down for lunch;
• Should schedule lunch periods to follow recess periods (in elementary schools);
• Should not schedule tutoring, club, or organizational meeting or activities during mealtimes, unless students may eat during such activities.
• Will provide students access to hand washing or hand sanitizing before they eat meals or snacks; and
• Should take reasonable steps to accommodate the tooth-brushing regimens of students with special oral health needs (e.g., orthodontia or high tooth decay risk.).

3. Staff Qualifications and Professional Development.  Qualified nutrition professionals will administer the school meal programs.  As part of the school district’s responsibility to operate a food service program, we will provide continuing professional development for all nutrition professionals in schools.  Staff development programs should include appropriate certification and/or training programs for child nutrition directors, school nutrition managers, and cafeteria workers, according to their levels of responsibility.

• Food service directors shall have a Bachelor’s degree in food and nutrition or business and shall have 12 hours annual continuing education/training.  An Associate’s degree with at least one year of relevant school nutrition programs experience or a high school diploma and at least five years of relevant experience in school nutrition programs can take the place of the Bachelor degree.
• School kitchen managers shall have 10 hours of annual continuing education/training.
• Other kitchen staff shall have 6 hours of annual continuing education/training.
• For the safety and security of the food and facility, access to the food service operations are limited to Child Nutrition staff and authorized personnel.  Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plans and guideline are implemented.
• School should ensure that required and effective food safety practices are applied to all foods prepared, sold or served at school or school sponsored events.

6. Water

To promote hydration, free, safe, unflavored drinking water will be available to all students throughout the school day “and throughout every school campus”.  The District will make drinking water available where school meals are served during mealtimes.

7. Competitive Foods and Beverages

The District is committed to ensuring that all foods and beverages available to students on the school campus during the school day support healthy eating.  The foods and beverages sold outside of the school meal programs will meet the USDA Smart Snacks in School nutrition standards, at a minimum.  Smart Snacks aim to improve student health and well being, increase consumption of healthful foods during the school day and create an environment that reinforces the development of healthy eating habits.  An allowance has been made for an occasional activity where the students are provided with refreshments that do not meet the Smart Snack rule but this is only occasionally and on an approved basis.

8. Nutrition Education

Wayne School District aims to teach, encourage, and support healthy eating by students.  Schools should provide nutrition education and engage in nutrition promotion that:

• Encourage healthy fund raising activities.
• Establish recommendations for wellness promotion to staff, teachers, administrators and parents so they can serve as role models for health.
• Nutrition education will involve sharing information with families and the broader community to positively impact students and the health of the community.
• In elementary schools, nutrition education will be taught at some point during the year in each class according to the teacher’s schedule and how the teacher wants to do it. 
• In secondary schools, nutrition education is taught in Health classes, Food Nutrition classes, and FACS classes where the food groups are taught and how many servings is needed in each food group and then preparing complete menus for a day.

9. Physical Activity

Elementary Schools

• Implement the USBE Physical Education Core Curriculum in each elementary school,
• Aim for daily physical education instruction and activity for each elementary school child, with a goal of 150 minutes per week.
• Include at least two recess periods with active play each day.  Establish recess as an important time of day for children and teachers and not a time for remediation or punishment.
• Schools should discourage extended periods (i.e., periods of two or more hours) of inactivity.  When activities, such as mandatory school-wide testing, make it necessary for students to remain indoors for long periods of time.  Schools should give students periodic breaks during which they are encouraged to stand and be moderately active.
• Establish and promote safe routes for walking and biking to and from schools.
• Analyze school schedules to promote recess before lunch.
• Adequate equipment is available for all students to participate in physical education.  Physical activity facilities on school grounds and in schools will be safe.
• Offer extracurricular physical activity programs before and after school, such as physical activity clubs or Intramural programs.

Secondary Schools

• Implement the USOE Physical Education Core curriculum in each secondary school.
• All students in grades 7-12 should receive daily physical education or its equivalent of 225 minutes per week through physical education classes and/or sports teams accordingly to Utah State guidelines.  These are the requirements that each student needs to meet for graduation.
• Ensure that state-certified physical education instructors teach all physical education classes.
• Ensure that physical education have a student/teacher ratio similar to other classes.
• Prioritize instruction that emphasizes activities, knowledge and skills for lifelong physical fitness.
• Include and promote Intramural sports and fitness activities that emphasize involvement of all students in addition to formal athletic programs at the high school level.
• Adequate, safe equipment is available for all students to participate in physical education.

10. Staff Wellness and Health Promotion

The District will have a staff wellness program that focuses on staff wellness issues, identifies and disseminates wellness resources and performs other functions that support staff wellness in coordination with human resources staff.

11. Monitoring and Policy review

Monitoring

• The superintendent or designee will ensure compliance with established district-wide nutrition and physical activity wellness policies.  In each school, the principal or designee will ensure compliance with those policies in his/her school and will report on the school’s compliance to the school district superintendent or designee.
• The food service director will ensure compliance with nutrition policies within school food service areas and will report on this matter to the superintendent.  In addition, the school district will report on the most recent USDA Administrative Review findings and any resulting changes.
• The superintendent or designee will develop a summary report every three years on district-wide compliance with the district’s established nutrition and physical activity wellness policies, based on input from schools within the district.  That report will be provided to the school board and also distributed to all school health councils, parent/teacher organizations, school principals, and school health services personnel in the district.

Policy Review

• To help with the initial development of the district’s wellness policies, each school in the district will conduct a baseline assessment of the school’s existing nutrition and physical activity environments and policies.  The results of those school-by-school assessments will be compiled at the district level to identify and prioritize needs.
• Assessments will be repeated every three years to help review policy compliance, assess progress, and determine areas in need of improvement.  As part of that review, the school district will review our nutrition and physical activity policies and program elements.  The district, and individual schools within the district, will, as necessary, revise the wellness policies and develop work plans to facilitate their implementation.
• The Wellness Policy shall be posted on the District’s web site and be included in annual notices provided to parents.  In addition, the District shall inform the public of the results of its assessments of the Wellness Policy.

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