In attendance:
Susan Lepple, Kate Dodge, Allegra Miller, Jeff O’Hara, Kelli
Brown, Alyssa Lasher, Diane Barber, Heidi Bouchard, Laura Howard, Doug Stewart,
Nancy Wood, Tanya Jones, Heidi Simkins, Kristin Miskavage, Ali Douglas, Kim
Gordon, Susan Abell.
Wellness Initiative Presentation: [posted here:
by Kelli Brown
·
For the past three years, the overall concept of
“wellness” and health is something that the Wellness Committee has been
addressing actively. This includes physical activity, our connection to food,
healthy eating habits, healthy activity choices, and creating a healthy school
community.
·
Statement of Purpose: To foster a school
and community climate that is centered around collaborative learning activities
which nurture the wellness of the whole child; emotionally, intellectually, and
physically.
·
Wellness Initiative ideas that have (or may
soon) been introduced:
o
Increasing parent involvement grades K-5
o
Curriculum supporting healthy choices
o
Outdoor garden, composting, and worm composting
o
Increased activity as part of the school day
o
Gaining grants to support programs through
funding
o
Family-School connection:
§
Cooking for Life
§
King Arthur Flour bread program
§
Wellness Fair
·
Walking Program and Exercise Breaks
o
Grades Pre-K to grade 4 are participating in the
walking program. As a class, they do a ¼ mile lap around the school; for each
mile they walk, a child gets a charm for their necklaces.
o
This is an optional program; most classes are
participating in this effort. Diane gives Barb Spaulding’s class the data of
how many students walked how many miles and they calculate the total miles
walked…and are helping to plot it across a map of the United States.
o
We watched the Syd Shuffle; they are doing this
in all kindergarten classes. (Google it.. it’s fantastic!)
o
‘Spark’ is a book about the latest
research in how physical activity stimulates/enhances brain activity. There are
copies in the library…a book club might also emerge to continue the
conversation.
·
Garden Updates:
o
The first year there were 8 garden beds (3 years
ago). This year, there are 18 raised garden beds, food is coordinated with
kitchen use and children are participating in the harvesting of the veggies.
o
Carrots were the most popular with the students.
Other veggies raised included cucumbers, basil, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, and
blueberries.
o
Approximately $250 has been saved from the
cafeteria budget based on the food grown on site.
o
Community involvement was great! NRG donated the
wood, the Boy Scouts made the new raised beds, a discount was provided for the
soil from Gardner’s Supply, Clark’s Trucking did the soil delivery, and it was
maintained all summer long by Part 2 and HCS families.
o
All winter the indoor veggie growing will be
done in the flex space (basil for pizza and greens for the salad bar). In
April, classes will start planting seeds for the outdoor garden.
o
Additionally, HCS is starting to get more
locally grown vegetables from a company in the North East Kingdom at a reduced
price.
·
Composting
o
Currently, the classrooms are composting on a
volunteer basis.
o
Composters are in the garden.
o
There are new signs for the composting/recycling
table in the cafeteria.
o
Milk containers have been moved to plastic so
that they can be recycled.
o
Milk containers are 80% of the waste produced in
the cafeteria.
§
Last year, the average was 72 pounds of waste
per day before the sorting station was introduced.
§
Currently the school produces 22 pounds of waste
(on average) per day.
o
CSWD came in and did training last year; hoping
to do it again this year.
o
Some of the primary classes are recycling their
paper towels by the classroom sinks.
o
Request for help: create a display
showing where some of the composted food goes (to a local chicken farmer),
CSWD’s recycle bowl (an adult is needed to lead this). Contact Heidi Simkins at
simkins@mindspring.com.
·
Wellness and school climate are being
incorporated into the school’s Action Plan (which is being written this year
for a larger 3-year goal).
·
There is a Wellness page on the HCS website
where you can get updated information and see the Mission Statement.
·
The hope is to do 3-4 wellness meetings per
year. If anyone has ideas or interests/talents they want to share, they can
contact Kelli Brown at: kelli_mcgonigal@yahoo.com
More information about Wellness here: http://www.hcsvt.org/Page/2328
More information about Wellness here: http://www.hcsvt.org/Page/2328
Business Meeting:
·
Report to the Board: A reminder, this is a new segment of a PIE
meeting. The co-principals will be sharing the information that they share with
the school board on a monthly basis.
o
This
report will be also posted on the HCS website.
o
Next
board meeting is 10/9/13 at CVU.
o
Thursday
10/10/13 there will be an informational session about the proposed changes for
Calendar2.0
·
Fundraising:
o
Genevieve’s/Red Barn orders are still trickling
in, but thus far, we look like we’re matching last year’s efforts.
o
Buy Local book sales will be wrapping up soon.
Be sure to buy at the school office or through Alyssa Lasher.
o
The Dynamic Duathalon occurred this weekend. PIE
parents helped with course support.
o
PIE was also the beneficiary of the Open House
dinner; to be incorporated into the larger PIE budget.
o
It was decided that the Scholastic Book Fair
will not be hosted this year. Discussion about combining with Corinna Stanley
to do a bigger used book sale in the spring, or our own used book sale.
o
A request for more committee members for the
fundraising committee… call Kate or Alyssa.
o
Box Tops will be doing a raffle Oct 28th…
remember to have your child turn in their box tops!
§
Log onto their website to play games to earn
more Box Tops for the school.
o
HCS was the top seller for the VT Lake Monsters
last year. Way to go!
·
Enrichment:
o
A group of parents are beginning to meet about
the topic of enrichment at HCS; what would it look like, address, scheduling,
etc. Jeff is meeting with this parent group. Contact Carla if you’d like to
participate in this conversation more fully at: cwuthrich@gmavt.net
·
Updates:
o
No school directory will be published this year
due to respect family’s privacy of information. Allegra will follow up with
classroom teachers to encourage a shared list for each class for parents to
stay in touch with students’ friends.
o
Allegra clarified that the criminal background
check is happening because they are getting HCS up to speed with VT laws.
o
The School House Savings program through
National Bank of Middlebury will be starting soon. Contact the local branch to volunteer, watch
for more information in the Viking.
Next PIE Meeting is November 4, 2013 from
6:00-7:00 only. Main topic is Common Core Curriculum. At 7:00pm the HCS School Board will hold its
annual community forum on the upcoming school budget process for the 2014-2015
school year.
