May 2017 SHAC Meeting

May 3, 2017

AISD Board Room

5:00 p.m. Pat Warner, Cynthia Sleight: Pat asked SHAC for a recommendation from SHAC for use of a
resource to create an AISD curriculum students in K-5 grades. Cynthia reviewed the TEKS and lessons
across PE, Social Studies, Math, Science, SEL, and other areas and discussed the need for a resource for
elementary schools. We currently have five lessons in each of grades K-5 which are taught after testing
at the end of the Spring semester. Pat shared the scope and sequence for these lessons. Each starts with
a lesson on Setting Ground Rules to establish the environment. We will be teaching students the
medically accurate terms for body parts including penis and vulva. A working group identified 3 R’s as
the primary resource and then staff will make adaptations and sequencing changes. Some schools split
boys and girls apart for the lessons—this is up to the Principal. We will inform principals that this is
coming. Teachers will need instructional guidelines. Parents will need more information including
objectives of each lesson. Trainings will be offered in the Fall semester to implement in the Spring
semester. We want parents to opt out per lesson instead of current practice of opting out of the whole
curriculum. We want to provide additional resources for parents and teachers. 3R’s is a K-12 sexual
health curriculum created by Advocates for Youth and meets the national health education standards
and also the national sexuality education standards. We are aligning all policies with the curriculum. Pat
and Cynthia feel that the resource is trauma-informed and they welcome further review of the lessons.
The instructional materials will make an effort to connect students who need additional support with
the counselor. Each campus has the option to teach this the way that works for them—i.e. having
specific teachers teach all of the lessons. Parents will be able to teach the materials themselves if they
choose. The curriculum will be ready for teachers in August, the professional development may take
longer.

Present: Barri Rosenbluth, Alma Arena, Laura Gold, Anneliese Tanner, Tracy Spinner, Pat Werner,
Cynthia Sleight, Michele Rusnak, Lesa Walker, Alda Santana, Shannon Sandrea, Toni Rayner, Andrew
Wiggins, Ronda Rutledge, Kathy Green, Vivian Ballard, Katie Wolfe, Ben Taylor, Melody Carlton, Tom
Rosen, Julie Cowan, Pam Martin, Sarah Bentley, Stephen Pont, Sally Freeman, Hugh Simmons, Jennifer
Delgado

Minutes: April minutes were approved.

Presentation: Overview of AISD Nutrition and Food Services Initiatives

Of the 83,000 students in AISD 56% are free and reduced lunch. We serve 80,000 meals per day. Work
areas include food access, nutrition education and sustainability. Food safety is a top priority. We have
an average food safety score of 97.3 %. We are transitioning from snacks to after school meals, serving
around 3,500 per day. On an average day we serve 28% of enrollment at breakfast and 52% at lunch.
The cost per meal is $1.10 per meal. Our target is $1.05. We had a warehouse collapse which resulted in
increased costs. All 80 elementaries have salad bars. We have seasonal menus. We project a budget
deficit this year resulting from minimum wage increase, warehouse collapse, new software, extra
training for staff. We are projecting an increase in lunch prices for paid meals from $2.85-$2.95 per
meal. The City funded $20,000 for courtesy meals to cover the cost of the lunch when students don’t

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have the funds for lunch. AISD funds about $300,000 per year for meals. Calls and emails go out on
Mondays to parents to inform them when the student has a negative balance. Breakfast in the
Classroom is reaching 17,000 students. Menu items include vegetarian, and scratch made. Students and
staff report breakfast is helping students bond and reducing disciplinary problems. Schools opt in if they
have at least 60% free and reduced lunch. Partners for BIC have provided a grant to increase funding for
more campuses. A new federal program called Community Eligibility Provision provides free breakfast
and lunch for all students at campuses with 70% of students directly certified on April 1, 2017. The
intent of the program is to eliminate administrative burden on food service departments. We are
serving every campus (70) that qualify for after school meals. Students may now take food outside of
the cafeteria to eat later. Students can now share food that they don’t want. Menus include seasonal
themes, incorporating local produce, veggie samples provided by Sustainable Food Center. 15-30% of
students are choosing salad bars. High school students are allowed to help themselves to as much fruit
and vegetables as they want. Salad bars will be rolled out to middle schools next year. Students are
excited about the salad bars. We have a food truck that is serving global themed menus. Students are
staying on campus rather than going out for lunch. Students are involved by submitting recipes, making
smoothies, raising pork at Lanier. We are sampling menus and providing nutrition education. We are
focusing on culinary training. We are bringing in items that students may eat at home, such as bone-in
chicken. We added menu identifiers this year to indicate meat and gluten free. Scratch-cooking has been
very well-received. We will have 100% clean labels in 2019—omitting 7 harmful ingredients completely
from our menu. We are maintaining the highest standard of food nutrition despite recent legislation
that allows a lower standard. Our biggest costs are for milk and dairy and meat and poultry. We are also
focusing on sustainability—vendors that are implementing sustainable practices, i.e. marine
stewardship. We do outreach events to educate the community –veggie walk was popular. We have
been consulting with other districts and are invited to present at conferences around the country. We
have had over 70 positive media mentions including National Geographic. We have received over $1.6
Million in grant funding from the LifeTime Foundation, Google, Action for Healthy Kids, Whole Kids
Foundation, Breakfast in the Classroom and others. Parent survey results show that parents are evenly
split on chocolate milk. Eliminating the harmful 7 ingredients at school has influenced parents at home.
Concessions for 5 stadiums will be done by food services next year, replacing items with healthy
alternatives. We will be transferring to School Café a platform that will consolidate all food matters,
payments and menus, in one place accessible with student’s ID number. The SHAC dinner was provided
by AISD food services and consisted of “frito pie” made of lentils, corn chips, and brown rice. Sides
included salad and cookies—everyone agreed the menu was delicious and healthy.

Pat Werner: Pat introduced a recommendation from the Health Curriculum working group to use The 3
R’s sex education curriculum as a resource. We currently are teaching students in K-5 curriculum on
bullying, making friends and related issues. The new lessons address body parts, boundaries, some anti-
bullying, and will better align with middle and high school curriculum. We are taking a free resource and
building lessons for AISD. We will offer training for teachers, inform principals and parents, provide
access to curriculum, provide parent opt out per lesson. Principals will choose how to implement on
their campus. The goal is for the materials to be available in Spanish and other languages spoken by
parents in AISD. The SHAC approved the recommendation.

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Board Report: Julie Cowan. A proposed bond package is being constructed by the FABPAC. We need
maintenance on existing schools and new campuses. Please call Julie or visit Austinisd.org/fmp to learn
more.

District Reports: Tracy and Dr. Minnie will present on the ecological model of school health at a national
conference in Maryland. She is still working with the Governor’s Office on funding to expand school-
based mental health services to elementary schools. Starla is receiving positive principal feedback from
17 CBCRCs. Multiple bills are being tracked related to mental health. The Netflix series, 13 Reasons
Why? is raising lots of needs and questions from campuses. The Central Health Texas policy committee
adopted AISD’s recess policy and is recommending it to other districts.

PE and Health: Michele Rusnak voiced her opinion on increasing elementary gym sizes to the FABPAC Ed
Specs Committee. Friday is Marathon Kids, please encourage participation. We had a lot of families run
the Capital 10K. Fitness gram data is coming in and Michele is working on the Coordinated School Health
Report. These scores will be a part of the superintendent’s score card. Pat Werner has been nominated
for the Honorary Award by the Texas Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

SEL: Pam reported that planning is underway for the second annual SEL symposium on June 15th, 2017.
The SEL fellowship which includes donors, professors, prinicipals, are developing SEL 2.0 to be rolled out
in Fall which includes trauma-informed practices and safe and supportive learning environments for
students and adults on campus.

Student Health Services: Integral Care provided a mental health counselor for sports physicals. EpiPens
are on every campus. An AISD nurse is being considered for an award by the Austin American
Statesman.

Employee Wellness: The benefits office is working to provide a one-stop shop webpage for all employee
wellness needs. ER visits have increased and primary care visits decreased, indicating misuse of the ER.
They are using this data to inform efforts to promote wellness. Costs for mental health are high and are
serving a significant portion of our employees.

Committee Reports:

SEB: Hugh Simmons and Eric Metcalf are meeting with local districts to convene a meeting to build a
collective voice for SHACs. Pam, Lesa, Sarah, Barri and other partners are creating a youth-led session at
the AISD SEL symposium in June to educate administrators and other school personnel on what students
say they need to feel safe, supported and successful at school. This session will feature 15-20 youth
leaders from various initiatives including PALS, Changing Lives, P2P and others. Lesa Walker of
Compassionate Austin presented certificates of youth leadership recognition to the AISD SHAC Social-
Emotional and Behavioral Health Committee for advancing youth voice and leadership in compassion
education.

Chair Kathy Green reminded the members that they are not to attend events or otherwise as
official representatives of the SHAC unless specifically authorized to do so by the SHAC.

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Community Comments:

Chelsea Brass presented as a community member and professional with experience in health policy. She
proposes that AISD partner with Central Health for school-based health services. Central Health should
be considered in the future for site-based clinic.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m.