The Allen ISD School Health Advisory Council (SHAC) Met on Tuesday, February 27Th at 6:30

SCHOOL HEALTH ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING

February 27, 2007

The Allen ISD School Health Advisory Council (SHAC) met on Tuesday, February 27th at 6:30 pm in the Lowery Freshman Center Library. Members present were: Dorothy Thompson, Ella Jones, Dawn Crain, P. D. Thomas, Jamey Carroll, Brooke Merritt, Nancy Luttrell, and Dr. Maroba Zoeller.

Dr. Zoeller called the meeting to order at 6:30 and welcomed all members. She thanked them for their dedication to the advisory council and explained that she had sent a notice of the Cybersafety Parent Forum that was held at Allen High School in November as an informal meeting for this group since the health and welfare of the district’s students was involved in that initiative. She explained that a follow-up to that meeting had been held at Vaughan Elementary in January and that the initiative would continue to be an emphasis of the district because of the importance of our being able to teach parents how to help their children use the internet safely.

Dr. Zoeller then reminded the group that the School Wellness Policy Administrative Guidelines specified that in accordance with Education Code 38.013, the SHAC would select and recommend to the Board for implementation no later than September 1, 2007, a Coordinated School Health Program designed to prevent obesity, cardiovascular disease, and Type II diabetes in elementary school students. The program, approved by the Texas Education Agency, would provide for coordinating health education, physical education and physical activity, nutrition services and parental involvement. The requirements of this Education Code have been extended to middle schools, but the curriculum offerings have not been approved.

Dr. Zoeller then introduced an overview of the C.A.T.C.H. program, one of the coordinated school health program curriculums that have been approved by T. E. A. After the overview presentation and discussion, she asked the SHAC to approve CATCH as the recommended Coordinated School Health Program for Allen ISD. She explained that the implementation would involve training a team of three from each elementary school in April of 2007. The teams will consist of the cafeteria manager, the P.E. teacher and a general education teacher from each of the schools. The CATCH trainers have agreed to conduct the one-day training in a 2-day session from 2:30 to 6:30 on Monday, April 23rd and Tuesday, April 24th to keep us from having to pull the cafeteria managers during the workday. All school personnel will be compensated for the extended duty time in training. They will be “trainer of trainers” and will be responsible for implementation of the program at their campuses.

Dorothy Thompson, District Director of Student Nutrition, then demonstrated the “Nutri-Café”, a website that will allow parents and students to select food items and learn nutritional values of those food items to help students make school cafeteria pre-selection choices that will build a balanced diet. The website will also incorporate the “Go, Slow and Whoa” terminology of food labeling that is a part of the CATCH nutrition component. Having this website available will meet the requirement of the coordinated school health program to provide nutrition information to the parents, students, staff and community. Dorothy expects elementary campus access within a month and full implementation through high school by August.

Members viewed the new SHAC web page created by Dr. Zoeller and Justin Acker. The site, which is accessible on the AISD website under School Health, features AISD Wellness Policy (School Board Policy), AISD Wellness Policy (Administrative Guidelines), SHAC Meeting Calendar, SHAC Meeting Minutes, Member Roster, and other school health related topics.

AISD has designated March as National Nutrition Month. SHAC members viewed the AISD Student Nutrition web page which includes a link to the Nutrition Education of Texas website for ideas on activities that make learning about nutrition both fun and educational for parents, students, and teachers.

The SHAC members unanimously approved the selection of CATCH curriculum as the coordinated school health program for Allen ISD. Several of the members expressed interest in attending the training and all SHAC members will receive notice of training schedules when they are finalized.

No other business was brought forward and the meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m. with Dr. Zoeller again expressing appreciation to the members and to Dorothy for providing nutritious snacks for the group.

Respectfully submitted,