Health and Wellness Committee

“Making Health and Wellness Part of Our School Culture”

In June of 2004, Congress mandated that all local education agencies that participate in the federal food program establish a local wellness policy that would take effect at the beginning of the school year beginning after June 30, 2006. By March of 2006, MUSD School Board passed the Wellness Policy and then in June of 2006, the board approved the Administrative Regulations. The Wellness Policy requires community involvement, including parents, and students. Representation from food services, school administration and community partnerships, is also part of the policy requirement.

We, on the Health and Wellness Committee, support efforts and activities designed to protect and promote the health and well-being of students, school staff and families. We accept the premise that physical, emotional, and social health all contribute to a child’s success in school. The Coordinated School Health Program evolved in response to changes in status of children’s health and education. A coordinated school health program utilizes personnel, agencies, and programs, both in and out of the school building that relate to student health and success in school.

There are eight integral parts to the Coordinated School Health Program, supported by the Health and Wellness Committee:

• School Health Services: Provides a mechanism to prevent health problems and promote health by accessing student health status; by providing emergency care; by ensuring all students and/or families have access to health care; by identifying barriers that students may have with learning.
• Health Education: School staff can be chief motivators for students in helping them to maintain and or improve their health status, prevent disease, and reduce at-risk behaviors by providing resources and expertise in developing health curricula and providing health information.
• Health Promotion Programs for Faculty and Staff: Including staff members in health promotion programs helps to maintain and improve their health status and morale.
• Counseling, Psychological and Social Services: School counselors and psychologists address problems and prevent problems which enhance learning and healthy behaviors. In turn, this promotes a healthy school environment.

• Healthy School Environment: A safe physical and psychological environment is supportive of learning. By monitoring, reporting, and intervening to correct hazards, and collaborating with other personnel to develop a crisis intervention plan, students can feel comfortable and safe in their school settings.
• School Nutrition Services: Providing education about nutritious foods, monitoring menus and food preparation, and encouraging the inclusion of healthy foods on menus, as well as healthy classroom snacks, students can learn information to use throughout life. Fundraising activities.
• Physical Education Programs: The team can collaborate with physical educators to meet physical education goals, provide information to students about physical activity, and help to design or encourage programs that will enhance mental, social, and emotional abilities for all students as well as for students with special health concerns.
• Family and Community Involvement: The Health and Wellness Committee shares and maximizes resources and expertise in addressing the healthy development of children and families by taking a role in collaborating with community agencies to identify and provide programs to meet the physical and mental health needs of children and families.

No part stands alone and all parts work together to make a more cooperative, collaborative school health team effort.