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Lexington City Schools is ensuring that students have access to nutritional resources as the School Board considers two updated nutritional policies.
To be compliant with state and federal regulations, the district needs to adopt updated policies, which reflect how the district already manages its operations, Director of Operations and Student Services Jason White told the School Board at its April meeting when he presented the proposed updates.
The first policy is fairly simple and establishes a health and wellness plan for the district, White explained. Under the revised policy, LCS should promote healthy eating choices and encourage participation in nutritional education. To model making the nutritious choice, the district is required to provide students with wellbalanced school meals.
Also, physical activity is recognized as a major component to the healthy lifestyle of students. Schools are required to incorporate physical education into curriculum for all grade levels and it’s recommended that students are allowed brief exercise breaks throughout the day. This policy also encourages the district to provide additional physical extracurriculars to promote student health outside of the typical academic setting.
The second policy that the LCS Board must consider is more complex, dealing with meal charges on student accounts, White noted. The policy states that it is up to the superintendent to establish free or reduced lunch eligibility standards based on federal laws. Protocols help cultivate an understanding environment where students are not segregated or identified for their reduced lunch payment plan.
The new policy also ensures that regardless of whether a student has the funds to pay for lunch that day, he or she will be fed. “Our old policy said that kids cannot charge more than $20 [to their account]. We know the law says that no matter if the account has negative dollars, we’re going to feed that kid and that they’re going to get fed that day,” White said.
Students unable to pay for school lunch are able to credit the meal to their school account. LCS has protocols in place for communicating with parents to settle outstanding debt on their student’s account, but the updated policy allows them to handle these matters in a case-by-case basis, White said.
