Boone County Schools Wellness GETTING STARTED

RECRUITING KEY LEADERS While attending regional wellness meetings Boone County Schools’ representatives heard comments regarding policy requirements and how other counties were implementing to further their wellness initiatives RESA 3 Regional Health Specialist Electa Crowder informed representatives regarding the Fuel Up To Play 60 program and introduced Sharon Maynard of the Dairy Council

Available Grants The RESA representative disseminated grant info: timelines, types of technical assistance available, offered to guide any school through the process; also spoke with county superintendents at their regional meetings This got the attention of the county representatives and dialogue began between the Wellness Coordinator and Superintendent at the county level

FUTP60 and Wellness Policies FUTP60 is a program that fulfills the federal criteria on nutritional promotion and physical activity as those topics relate to requirements within individual wellness policies for schools Districts must have a plan to implement in the school communities that addresses each of the above and collaboration is to exist between the parents, school personnel, students, and community partners to accomplish this plan

Administrative Support After the school nurse director met with the County Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent, it was decided that all schools would participate in FUTP60 as a collaborative effort to fulfill wellness initiatives required by USDA and/or the federal wellness guidelines. This would involve the County Wellness Team meeting and implementing through the health and physical education staff at each school. Principals were directly involved as well

NASN NASN held a webinar this year, that illustrated how the FUTP60 program and grants assisted school communities in fulfilling new federal requirements

Upcoming Changes  Review* – New requirements for LWPs with the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 Place greater emphasis on the implementation, evaluation, and publicly reporting on progress of LWPs – Proposed Rule Fall 2012 – Final Rule Fall 2013 – LEAs expected to start implementing the new requirements NOW *NASN Presentation Local Wellness

Workshops Electa Crowder, the RESA 3 Wellness Specialist, the local Food Services Director, Director of School Nurses and Sharon Maynard of Dairy and Nutrition Council would lead the next three workshops with all health and physical education teachers in Boone County Schools

FUTP60 Web Site Introduced All schools used the School Wellness Inventory to identify strengths and weaknesses at the individual schools BCS was already very strong in enforcement of nutritional standards required by federal guidelines Most of the inventories showed improvement was needed in community involvement with wellness initiatives, students as ambassadors and health advocates, and physical activity needed to increase during the school day

FUTP60 Grant Funding BCS ASHFORD RUMBLE ELEMENTARY $2500 BROOKVIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL $3500 JEFFREY-SPENCER ELEMENTARY $2500 MADISON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL $3500 MADISON MIDDLE SCHOOL $3500 NELLIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL $2500

Funding RAMAGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL $3100 SCOTT HIGH SCHOOL $3300 SHERMAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL $3500 SHERMAN HIGH SCHOOL $3400 SHERMAN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL $3065

Funding VAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL $2500 VAN HIGH SCHOOL $2700 WHARTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL $2500 WHITESVILLE ELEMENTARY $2700

Touchdown Schools!!!! West Virginia only had 25 schools to complete this major milestone with the program, with Boone County representing 8 of those 25 schools. 32% of the schools who qualified as ‘touchdown schools’ in West Virginia were from Boone County and included the following: Ashford-Rumble; Nellis; Madison Elementary; Ramage; Sherman Elementary; Sherman High; Van High; and Whitesville Elementary!

Ramage Elementary

Student Ambassadors

Fun With Wellness

Barriers and Interventions Assisting administrators at individual schools and the Health and PE staff to realize that this was not “another task-another duty” Instead, they were accomplishing, by filing for FUTP60 grants, the following: creating a school wellness plan and satisfying federal requirements in nutrition promotion and physical activity!

What we have learned: School program advisors need to be reminded regularly about deadlines and assistance needs to be available for grant writing (although FUTP60 has made it as easy as possible) Food Services and School Health Services, Physical Education and Health Educators, and Administrators must collaborate for success

Students and Parents Once the program has begun: other participants have key roles to prevent one individual from feeling overwhelmed. Discuss duties at Wellness Committee meetings to divide the responsibilities Holistic approach; all of the school community must be involved for success Pleasant surprises along the way! Competitions, additional funding, collaborations for additional grants, etc.

Resources Dairy and Nutrition Council FUTP60 Web Site: encourage participants to view tutorials and playbook on line– invaluable! Check the site often for new events and opportunities Involve parents and business partners along with the students, when creating the ‘plan’