North Coast
Regional Award Winner
Regional Award Winner
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Miwok Valley Elementary submitted the following three essays for consideration of the Governor's Challenge Competition Grand Prize: Essay 1 - Commitment to Promoting Healthy Eating on Campus Miwok Valley Elementary School is committed to healthy eating on campus. Roughly fifty-percent of our students qualify for free and reduced lunches, so what we serve daily is an important nutritional link to our students well-being. We have enacted an ambitious wellness policy with nutritional components that exceed the latest recommendations. Our overarching goal is that all food served and sold in our schools is safe, nutritious, fresh and appealing. To achieve this goal we have worked with our district to ensure the following: • All food and beverages sold during school hours meet or exceed the minimum nutritional guidelines by the federal and state government. • Food service utilizes the USDA nutrient based menu planning options as the basis for school meal menu planning. • Our district utilizes the daily SHAPE California menu target levels for sodium, fiber and cholesterol. • The food service department provides students fresh fruits and/or vegetables as part of meals. • Miwok is pursuing a partnership with Petaluma Bounty to create a community garden on our school site, which will be utilized, by our students and their families. • Food service offers snacks that do not include partially hydrogenated oils. • Ingredients of foods sold or served at school are available to parents. • All parents receive a copy of our wellness policy. • Classroom celebrations and all after-school functions include healthy food options. All teachers received training and materials for the new food pyramid from the department of agriculture at a wellness in-service day in August of ‘06. A certified nutritionist audited our current food offerings and advised us on areas that needed improvement. Our commitment to healthy eating is unwavering and we will continue to monitor our practices to teach, promote, and model good food habits to our students and families. Essay 2 - Support of Students’ Physical Activity and Fitness Miwok Valley Elementary School has a solid plan of support for our student’s physical activity and fitness. Fitness and activity are integrated throughout the school day as well as the school year. All students receive a comprehensive PE program from a PE assistant and their classroom teacher that meets and in most cases exceeds the 100 minute state requirement. Our PE classes have components of flexibility, strength training, cardiovascular health, and games. Additionally, we have the following programs in place: • Pedometers in kindergarten where students count their steps on the track throughout the school year • Marathon club where students keep track of their laps until they reach 26 miles and are inducted into the Marathon Club. This past year we had many double marathon participants. • Student Council run assemblies where the students teach new games to their schoolmates. A hit of last year was hopscotch. • Jump Rope for Heart where all students learn how to jump rope and raise money for the American Heart Association. • Lap-a-thon where students get pledges and run/walk laps on the track for one hour to support the PTA. • School sponsored skating nights at the local roller skating rink. • Bike rodeo to teach bike safety • Participation in Walk and Roll Day and Ride Your Bike to Work Day. • Eastside Relays which is a five-school track and field event for fifth and sixth graders. • After-school hockey club at the local apartments for our students. • Field trips to our local gymnastics studio. • Students walk to local field trips rather than taking a bus. Our students know that we value their physical well-being and know how important it is to be active because we make time for it each and every day. Essay 3- Need For a New Fitness Center Miwok Valley Elementary School is a can-do school in a maxed-out facility. We serve close to 500 students and provide before and after school child care. We have a small multipurpose room that seats 1/3 of the students at any one time. We have space for a new facility and would still have ample playing fields as well as an already existing 1/8th mile track that our students spent 8 years raising money to build. During inclement weather, our students receive PE in their crowded classrooms as our small multipurpose room is occupied for lunch seating 3 hours a day. During good weather, PE is offered on playgrounds they share with lunch and morning recess, which limits access to fields and equipment. Yet we are undaunted in our pursuit of fitness. We integrate fitness into our daily routines as best we can. At our latest community forum, students were quite articulate in their desire to have a place to play and exercise on a regular basis. If we were to receive the new fitness center we would provide such a place and expand our offerings to our students throughout the day. Additionally, it would be a community building where our students, preschoolers, child-care and community groups could access it. We have a womens boot camp that meets daily on our playground at 5:30 am. They and other groups that promote fitness and wellness could use our facility. We would expand the parent education programs we offer to include family fitness and add a fitness component to the free babysitting we already provide for these classes. With our limited resources, I feel our students will never see a building devoted to their health and well-being. We are a deserving school that has a high level of commitment, energy, enthusiasm, and need. |
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