The Park City Board of Education is updating its students wellness policy and is asking the community, parents, students, and educators for feedback.
The district is committed to providing a school environment that enhances learning and development of lifelong wellness practices. It recognizes the relationship between adequate nutrition, physical activity and academic achievement.
The policy, which can be viewed here, outlines the district’s nutrition programs and promotion, nutrition guidelines for all foods available on campus during the school day, and nutrition education.
The wellness policy is posted for its required 20 days during which time the district accepts public comment. Feedback can be sent to Lorie Pearce, lpearce@pcschools.us prior to Dec. 17. The board anticipates adopting the policy at its Dec. 18 regular session.
Nutrition is important, but… we spend too much time, effort, and money on it here.
For the upper schools, I’d like the school district to pay more attention to the negative health effects (mental physical) of drugs and vaping. Also, peer pressure and the value of having the self esteem and confidence to say no to friends who make bad choices. Let’s have more K-9 searches in school so kids learn that the district means business. More awareness and less tolerance. More support for students. More professional training about the issues that can kill and how to deal with it. More assemblies at school to address popular culture and social media problems. Give the students decent lunch choices and move on to the more serious policies.
I appreciate your efforts and investments in the health of my children.
I think you’re right on target!
AND – no K-9 searches INSTEAD of positive, reinforcing TEACHING. Let’s model trust and kindness, and keep the intrusive measures to an absolute minimum driven by direct evidence.
Thank you again!
Want to know what’s healthy? Eating and having time to eat. I send a lunch with my youngest (1st grade) every day, and every day that lunch comes right back? Why? Because the kids only have to sit for 15 minutes to eat and then have recess. The kids are given the choice to eat or play. They’re SIX YEARS OLD. They don’t have the emotional wherewithal to make that judgment call. I’ve complained to our principal and her only response is “it’s better than it was.” Well, that’s unacceptable and apathetic. And, I’m not the only parent who feels this way. I know of at least 10 other parents who claim to have raised the issue with our principal and still nothing is done. Very disappointing!
Thank God SOMEONE besides me was willing to point out the obvious. Many kids as young as middle school are regularly vaping and getting high in Park City. Clearly, the school board seems more interested in coddling the overindulged offspring of Park City elites, since they prefer focusing school policy on parents’ latest nutritional whims rather than addressing real student issues. (They also make sure to effectively silence any adult brave enough to have genuine conversations with the students that don’t conform to the politically correct talking points over at MSNBC).
Get a grip, school board. You’re losing these kids.
I agree with this. My kids both tell me they throw out their lunch frequently because there isn’t enough time to get through the line and eat before it’s time to go.
Admittedly, they are very slow eaters.
Food and nutrition wise I have been pleased with the variety of foods offered.
Thank you for calling this out. As someone new to the district, with kids in elementary school now and preschool, I would love to see the district have adaptive social curriculum for this, to drive better choices and model out the risks beyond talking points. Perhaps using theater and role play could engage older kids to share real experiences and manage in smaller interactions over time. And have it also play out in the elementary levels too. Adolescence is one of the most challenging times in a young persons life. Here in PC we are not insulated from these dangers that can do often lead to tragedies. All for district/youth alignment on behavior risk management.
Yes! Thank you for bringing this up. My 1st grader is a growing boy and comes home “hangry” almost every day. He has only eaten 2 bites of his sandwich and all the rest of his food got warm and wasted in his lunch box. Then he tells me how he got in trouble at lunch recess because he got in a fight. This is not my normal son but he is starving and we all know how lack of food makes kids unmanageable. We just moved to Park City in August and at his old school they had 30 mins to eat and he hardly ever had a bad day.
The schedule needs to change. As important as it is to make sure we are giving our children healthy food, they need time to eat it!
Dear Non-coddling, of the never indulging parent from the under elite in Park City. I could not agree more with your support regarding inclusion of education that places emphasis on the physical, mental, and may I add, the emotional and social affects of synthetic drug usage. May it be presented to our children based on the sciences and not societal norms.
Nonetheless, our children would also greatly benefit from an education on
the sciences regarding refined sugar, tobacco, alcohol, toxicity in thier local environment, and chemically processed foods. All of which equally have a profound affect on their health, wellness, performance, and longevity.
I could not agree more! My son is doing the same thing since 3rd grade now, the time we moved to PC. He never has enough time to eat the lunch that we pack for him every day. Half of it comes back home spoiled. That just can’t be healthy for the kids.
Amen!!!
I knew I wasn’t the only parent who would raise the issue of lunch scheduling. We waste so much food that it’s shameful. Positively shameful! We live in a school district in which we are guilted into giving free food to kids who aren’t as fortunate, but then don’t feed and waste the food of those who have it! I don’t know what school your kids go to, but our principal had been more concerned with making her office look like Hogwarts and dressing up like Professor Snape than doing any actual work as the principal of our school. I’m not the only one at our school who sees things this way either. The district needs to reach out to the concerned parents at our school.
I couldn’t agree more with the first several posts. I think mental health should be at the top of the Wellness priority list.
Our kids are dealing with high levels of social, academic, emotional and real world uncertainty. The influence of social media and peer pressure affect decision making in every aspect of our children’s well being. We all know the choices our kids are facing at younger and younger ages – vaping, alcohol use, sexual activity, drug use to name a few of the biggies – these are challenges our kids face daily.
Many struggle with anxiety, depression, low self esteem,
challenging home life, lack of resources, etc, etc .
I would love to see the district develop a program to address the very serious challenges our kids fave in this community to teach them skills that will set them up for a healthy, well adjusted and balanced life.
It’s time for real issues to be addressed in our schools.
SLEEP! I realize this is not part of the policy but I wish it were. The high school kids are required to be at school at an hour that is not conducive to teen body clocks. I know there was once an effort to change the school start time but it appears to have fizzled out. My daughter is a junior. I encouraged her to take fewer AP classes but she worries that colleges will not look at her without the classes. Her dance teacher frequently requires them to be at school at 7 am. The homework load is HOURS every day and these kids are going on very little sleep in order to maintain decent grades and participate in extra circular activities. I can’t believe that I actually fight with my daughter over doing LESS homework. But she has had walking pneumonia, throat infections and several colds since starting school this year. Having a later start time and a serious look at homework load and sleep deficit would go a long way in helping to improve the mental and physical health of the high schoolers.
I absolutely agree that healthy start times should be part of any “Student Wellness” policy. This policy is very limited in scope. Seems to me it should be renamed the “Nutrition Policy.”