Wellness Policy/UIRSD
UP ISLAND REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
WELLNESS POLICY
Up Island Regional School District (UIRSD), comprised of West Tisbury School and Chilmark
School, is committed to the optimal development of every student and the promotion of school
staff ’s physical and mental health. UIRSD believes that for students to have the opportunity to
achieve personal, academic, developmental and social success, it needs to create positive, safe
and health-promoting learning environments at every level, in every setting, throughout the
school year. It also recognizes that fostering school employees’ physical and mental health
enables them to then better support students’ health and academic success.
UIRSD has created this Wellness Policy, including goals for nutrition education and promotion,
physical activity and physical education, health education and other school-based activities that
promote student wellness. The Wellness Policy adheres to relevant state and federal regulation.
It also outlines UIRSD’s approach to ensuring environments and opportunities for all students
to practice healthy eating and physical activity behaviors throughout the school day, as well as
fostering school employees’ physical and mental health.
- Students have access to healthy foods throughout the school day, both through
reimbursable school meals and other foods available, in accordance with Federal and
state nutrition standards;
- Students receive quality nutrition education to help them develop lifelong healthy eating
behaviors;
- Students have opportunities to be physically active before, during, and after school;
- Schools engage in nutrition and physical activity promotion and other activities that promote
student wellness;
- School staff are encouraged and supported to practice healthy nutrition and physical
behaviors in and out of school;
- UIRSD establishes and maintains an infrastructure for management, oversight,
implementation, communication about, and monitoring of the policy and its established goals
and objectives.NUTRITION
The school nutrition environments in UIRSD schools provide students with healthy eating
education and practice. Our goal is to make sure all students and staff will have opportunities,
support, and encouragement to make healthy nutrition choices throughout the school day,
provided as part of the school meal program, at other times during the school day in food and
nutrition education integrated in the health education curriculum, school gardens, and in school
events taking place outside of school hours.
Our schools are committed to serving healthy, well balanced, great tasting, vibrant meals and
snacks to students and staff. The District participates in the USDA child nutrition programs,
including the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), the School Breakfast Program (SBP), and
the USDA Dept of Defense Fresh Fruit and Vegetable programs.
The School Food Service Program provides students and staff access to a variety of affordable,
nutritious, and appealing foods, water and milk that:
- Meet the health and nutritional needs of students and adhere to or exceed the USDA school
meal regulations.
- Make water available and accessible without restriction to students at no charge when meals
are served.
- Accommodate the dietary restrictions of the student body in meal planning;
- Provide clean, safe, and pleasant settings and adequate time for students to eat; and a
minimum of 20 minutes for lunch and a minimum of 10 minutes for breakfast, after sitting
down.
- Ensure that no student go hungry while in school.
Both schools will participate in available federal school meal programs, including the school
breakfast program(West Tisbury ONLY), national school meals program; and, to the maximum
extent practicable, summer food service program, fruit and vegetable snack program.
The schools will maintain the same Massachusetts Food and Beverage Standards for extended
day programs, concession stands, booster sales, fundraising activities and school sponsored or
school related events and will adhere to the school district’s Administrative Wellness Policy
Guidelines and Implementation Procedures, as applicable. Food is not to be used as a reward in
the classroom, and food based instruction and celebrations will be discouraged.
When and if allowed, they will adhere to this Wellness Policy’s guidelines.PHYSICAL EDUCATION and PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES
The district’s goal is that all students in grades K - 8 have opportunities, support, and
encouragement to be physically active on a regular basis throughout the school day through
physical education (PE) classes and in other ways before and after school. Such opportunities
will and may include the following: open gym, interscholastic athletics, active transportation
(walking and biking to school), and physical activity integrated into the academic curriculum
where appropriate. Additionally, there are designated daily recess periods with active play for
K-8 students. The district is participating with the Massachusetts Safe Routes to Schools
Program.
The Health and Physical Education/Athletic Departments will provide all students, including
students with disabilities, special health care needs and those in alternative educational settings,
with access to a variety of opportunities for physical activity. These activities will:
- Adhere to or exceed the Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework and
the National Association for Sport and Physical Education Standards
- Ensure that students learn skills for lifelong activities
- Provide students with the opportunity to participate in physical activity through a range oof
programs including but not limited to, commuting options that promote active
transportation, interscholastic athletics, and activities that are available to students,
regardless of skill level, such as intramural and physical activity clubs.
- Include in-school training on active transportation to ensure students have the tools
necessary to walk or ride to school safely and comfortably.
* The school district will ensure physical education is taught by qualified educators who are
certified by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to teach physical education. In addition, as
part of a quality physical education program, all physical education teachers will be expected
to participate regularly in professional development activities.
* The school district will ensure equipment and facilities specifically used for Physical Education
are adequate and conform to safety standards.
* Students will not be kept from recess or excluded from a Physical education class , except if the
removal is necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the student, other students
and staff and/or is related to the students engaging in conduct, during recess or Physical
Education class, that is in violation of the codes of conduct set forth in the Student Handbook
and/or in school based rules or other district policies (e.g. anti-bullying policy, non-discrimination policy), or the permission of the student’s parent has been given for this
student’s exclusion or removal.
* Students will not be denied recess to conference with teaching staff, finish projects or make up
work, unless under unusual circumstances.
* Physical activity or recess will neither be denied nor required as a form of punishment.
* All students in grades K-8 will have at least 20 minutes of supervised recess time, preferably
outdoors, during which trained staff will encourage moderate to vigorous physical activity
verbally and through the provision of space and equipment.
* Students and staff will be encouraged to engage in active transportation (walking, biking, etc.)
to and from school and to support an active lifestyle from an early age by working to make
bicycling and walking to school a safer and more appealing mode of transportation.
HEALTH and NUTRITION EDUCATION and PROMOTION
The following are the district’s goals for health education activities:
- Students will receive encouragement, support and education to adopt and maintain healthy
behaviors through standards based health education, including nutrition education and social
emotional learning and within a coordinated school health program.
- Students receive health education that teaches skills they need to adopt and maintain healthy
behaviors.
- Students receive health messages from all aspects of the school program.
- Health education curriculum standards and guidelines address both nutrition and physical
education.
- Nutrition is integrated into the health education curriculum. Staff who provide health and
nutrition education will have appropriate training.
- Health and nutrition education curriculum will be aligned to the Massachusetts
Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework, National Health Education Standards and
the National Sexuality Education Standards and will establish linkages between health
education, school meal programs and related community services.
- The school district will ensure that specialist staff who teach health education in middle
school(6-8)are qualified educators who are certified by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
to teach health education.
- Principals will provide training to enable school staff to value and promote physical health
and nutrition education, healthy eating and opportunities for students to be physically active,
and will ensure that school staff adheres to the Wellness Policy and related administrative
guidelines and procedures.- Nutrition promotion will support and enhance classroom nutrition education through eating
experiences in the school cafeteria provided by the Director of Food Services and through
partnership with Island Grown Initiatives, with opportunity to grow, harvest and taste
organically grown fruits and vegetables in school gardens.
- Where practicable, school gardens will be maintained as a health and nutrition, resource and
all gardens will include edible fruits and vegetables and use organic practices.
- Schools are encouraged to provide nutrition and physical activity information for families.
- Any food based celebrations will be discouraged.
- All food related instruction will be discouraged.
- Food will not be used as a reward in the classroom.
MONITORING and EVALUATING
Compliance with the Wellness Policy and implementation procedures will be ensured by the
principal of each school in the district.
As required by the Child Nutrition Reauthorization of 2010, USDA Food and Nutrition Services
Final Rule, 7 C.F.R. 210.18(h)(8), and the Massachusetts Standards our School Wellness
Committees, the Wellness Policy Council(West Tisbury School and Chilmark School’s Wellness
Committees) will be tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Wellness Policy and
giving periodic updates.
The Wellness Policy will be reviewed every three years, and a report assessing the school
district’s progress toward meeting the goals of this policy and compliance with this policy will be
prepared and made available to the public.
ROLE AND MEMBERSHIP
UIRSD will convene a representative district Wellness Committee that meets once a year to
establish goals for and oversee health and safety policies and programs, including development,
implementation and periodic review and update of this Wellness Policy.
Both the West Tisbury School and Chilmark School will establish its own committee which will
convene independently at least four times a year to review school-level issues, establish goals for
and oversee school health and safety policies and programs, including development,
implementation and periodic review and potential update of this Wellness Policy.Wellness Committee membership at each school will represent and include, but not be limited
to parents/caregivers; students; school nutrition representative; physical education teachers;
health education teachers; school nurse; school administrator; and a community member.
LEGAL REFS: The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004,
Section 204, P.L. 108-265, as amended, and related regulations
The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act, 42 U.S.C.
1751 - 1769h, as amended, and related regulations
The Child Nutrition Act of 1966, 42 U.S.C. 1771 - 1789, as amended, and related
regulations, including without limitation, 7 C.F.R. 210 et seq.
Wellness Policy First Revision: September 2022
Second Revision: April 2023