SPRINGFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOLS WELLNESS COMMITTEE MEETING

SPRINGFIELD, OR 97477 Thursday, October 3, 2013 4:00 PM

Room 312/Administration Building

MINUTES

A meeting of the Springfield Public Schools Wellness Committee Meeting was held Thursday, October 3, 2013.

Attendance: Laura Pavlat, Hanalei Rozen, Charis Allenbaugh, Dana Spangler, Megan Kemple, and Gary Cole

1.  WELCOME/AGENDA REVIEW

2.  Review of Minutes

Ms Spangler would like to see a correction to the minutes regarding the Menu Validation Review/Audit and School store sold items.

When State Auditors visited Agnes Stewart Middle School they observed the school store in operation while the meal service was in session. They observed the school store selling a variety of candy and ice cream bars.

Ms. Spangler would like to clarify that the school store opens their door during the school meal session but only because students are not allowed to be in the room with the door closed. She also clarified that the items that are sold are food items that met federal guidelines.

Mr. Cole recommended the food items sold at the school store be checked to make sure all items are still meeting the guidelines.

Ms. Spangler would like to clarify that no candy was sold in the school store at Agnes Stewart Middle School.

Change sentence to “The school store was selling a variety of items that appeared to the inspectors eyes not incompliance.”

Minutes are approved with changes mentioned above.

3. PUBLIC COMMENTS

Ms. Rozen comments that any committee that is proposing policy matters to the board need to comply with the State law which means that the meetings need to be publicized. The city publicizes all of their committee meetings in the local newspaper. Ms. Pavlat will check with Karen Lewis regarding this matter.

4. REVIEW PROPOSED MEETING CALENDAR (13/14)

The committee members at this meeting had different thoughts about what time the meetings should start in the future. Some would like to start at 4:00pm and others at 4:15 or 4:30 pm.

Ms. Pavlat will send out a survey that will contain a variety of proposed days and times for meetings. This will help understand what would work best for most members. Ms Pavlat also talked about how many members would be interested in meetings at some of the schools. She will include this in the survey.

Ms. Rozen would like to see the committee meet more often instead of every other month. Ms. Allenbaugh suggested the committee first work on what the goals are for this year and this will determine the time and commitment needed to accomplish the goals. Ms. Pavlat would like to have a brain storming meeting to figure out if there are new goals. She mentioned that the committee keeps reviewing topics that have been already done. An idea that Ms. Pavlat had for this year is to have a list of suggested Healthy Food and Beverages similar to what the State has for meetings, so that staff are not bringing doughnuts and/or soda to meetings. The information would also address portion sizes.

Input from Ms. Rozen was that much of the policy has not been implemented in the last six years. Ms. Rozen suggested that the committee look at the policy and see what it was intended to be and implement it. This will help others know where the district stands. She feels that if the committee didn’t complete that then the committee didn’t complete its goal. The way the mandate was, is to have a policy approved and then to have an objective with a kind of follow up set. A lengthy process where one can say, report this is what the policy recommends but if it is not working then we suggest doing something else. Ms. Pavlat suggested going back and reviewing policy to help set goals for this year. This will help define what the goals are which will help to figure out how many meetings we need to have this year.

5. HEALTHY SCHOOLS CHALLENGE-UPDATE

Ms. Kemple is the Farm to School Program director with Willamette Food Coalition, works with Gary Cole on the Farm to School Program, and Guylee Elementary School on the Farm to School Education Program and at the State level coordinating Farm to School Education. Farm to school leaders from around the State have been working for many years to get funding for Farm to School activities. Last year there was a pilot program that was implemented; the State of Oregon allocated $200,000.00 for school district to cover their costs to reimburse for purchases to Oregon grown products and to help cover the costs for educational programming. This program has expanded this year, the legislature has allocated 1.2 million dollars to the grant program. Mr. Cole and Ms. Kemple worked together to apply for the grant, they heard in August that the District was awarded the farm to school grant. The proposal that was funded was $50,000 and the district was awarded the full amount for two years. The state legislature mandated that around 85% of the grant be spent on food and 15% be spent on educational programming. There is a specific formula that Mr. Cole would use to calculate his reimbursement rate, since he doesn’t get reimbursed for the whole cost of the product. An example: If he purchases 50 cases of apples the grant would cover the extra cost of the apples because the apples could be more expensive then apples that he could get otherwise. The reimbursement is $0.15 per meal; he would calculate how many meals a case of apples will serve divides by .15 and ends with the reimbursement rate. This amount is what he would ask the State to reimburse. The amount available for food is $42,500 and $7,500 is available for education. The School district currently has an agreement with Willamette Farm and Food Program who is currently providing the education piece therefore they were written into the grant as the sub contractor for the $7,500 this will help cover the educational programming cost to continue to provide the comprehensive program at Guylee Elementary School. The school has a family outreach program, were families go to the Lane County Youth Farm providing them with coupons; they are able to use at the farm. The funds will cover the cost of the Farm Education Program and school garden sessions. The school garden project is the sub contractor for the garden session activities. Non profit is getting $5,000 and school garden is getting $2,500. The education program that is being funded is provided at Guylee, Two Rivers Dos Rios, and Page Elementary. Farm to school education program cost about $15,000 per year which would be $30,000 for two years. The school garden project is about $18,000 per year. 19 other School Districts in Oregon got the grant out of 30 that applied. The other two School Districts in our area that got the grant are Oakridge and Bethel School District.

6. Update on Employee Wellness

The Willamalane Fitness Center has extended the membership for the district employees and has added the premier package to the membership. The premier package allows employees to have access to all the different classes that are offered like Tabata. This includes a free hour with a trainer and a variety of water classes. By adding all the different options Ms. Pavlat believes this has added a couple hundred employees to sign up with the center.

7. ADJOURNMENT

Meeting was adjourned at 5:25 pm.

ec

Page 1 of 3