Crookston School District Food Services Director Emily Scheresky brought an updated version of the district’s local wellness policy to the Policy Committee during their meeting last week.
Scheresky explained that this policy was developed by the Wellness Committee. It is based on guidelines received from the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and must be updated every three years. The committee consists of representatives from each school level. The policy encompasses all food-related activity on school property and goes over policies on classroom snacks, parties, and fundraisers, among other topics. It also includes a section on physical activity and education, including guidelines for physical education and physical activity topics in health education.
One of the concerns shared by the committee was making sure the policy was in compliance with the Minnesota School Boards Assocation (MSBA) as well as MDE. Scheresky told the committee she tried to access the MSBA website to find its policies, but she could not access the site. Interim Superintendent Todd Selk gave her a copy of the MSBA policy for review and recommended that she merge it with her current version to ensure compliance with all involved agencies. “There’s going to be a lot of work to be done in order to merge these policies into something that both reflects the requirements for the Department of Education as well as what is required of the Wellness Committee to have in their policy, while utilizing some of the verbiage of the MSBA documents,” explained Scheresky. “That will be what is kind of the standard for our policy going forward.”
Scheresky appreciated the feedback and will take the suggestions back to the wellness committee for additional updates. “I think that we had some good conversation today about the wellness committee and the policy work that the committee does,” sid Scheresky. “I think it was a good opportunity to inform some of the school board members about their ability to come into our wellness committee meetings, as they are open to the public, and they are encouraged to attend those meetings whenever they occur. And I think it was a good opportunity for us to kind of understand who would be involved in the upcoming revisions of the policy as well.”
