The Lynnfield School Committee were presented with a health and wellness program review during a School Committee meeting last week, where committee members received recommendations and feedback on the current curriculum.
Dr. Sarah Benes, co-partner at Lighthouse Wellness and Health Education Consulting Inc., presented this review, which analyzed the district and its collaboration with A Healthy Lynnfield from February to June, 2022. The goal of the review, which was funded by A Healthy Lynnfield, was to support the district to meet the changing needs of Lynnfield’s youth.
Benes based the review on more than 10 tools and resources from organizations including the Center for Disease Control, SHAPE America, and the Rudd Center at the University of Connecticut.
She met with the youth council from A Healthy Lynnfield and staff and did classroom observations. Benes also looked at a risk behavior surveillance survey and focus group data to try to “take a big scope of what was included here.”
As a result of this, she came up with important key ideas based off of the review that she wanted to elevate, including maximizing construction.
At the elementary and middle school levels, Benes said it’s important to manage space to ensure adequate and safe space for effective physical education (PE) classes, to address scheduling inequities for PE, and to create a permanent and dedicated space for health education.
In terms of high school, she said the biggest thing that came out of the review in terms of maximizing instruction is that some classes may have nine students, while others have 40 in a shared gym space.
“It means that the teachers really have to think about what they’re doing and how they’re doing it because again, there’s just not the space to be playing full-sized games so not everybody gets a chance to play,” Benes said.
At all levels, she said that overall, there’s a “really great opportunity to review and revise curriculum.”
To maximize the impact of health and PE classes at the elementary level, she suggested adding a licensed health educator to teach health education because “having health education in elementary school is a really powerful opportunity for prevention.”
“This is when they’re really starting to learn and get interested and we know that the goal would be to help them develop the tools and skills that they would need before they maybe start doing some risky behaviors,” Benes said.
At the middle school level, she suggested increasing time for health and PE. For high school, and adding a full-time, licensed health educator and a separate health education course in the ninth grade. Benes also recommended creating, reviewing and implementing policies related to health and physical education.
“Things like having health-ed, or health and physical education, have a grade that’s equal to other grades or ensuring that students have to pass in order to graduate,” she said. “Those kinds of policies can just help reinforce the importance of the subjects.”
Benes also presented a chart that showed national guidelines around how much time should be spent on health-ed and said there’s a pretty wide variability, but there’s an opportunity for growth in Lynnfield.
“When making recommendations, try to balance that the reality of asking for 60 hours at the elementary school is probably not realistic. So the recommendations are in an attempt to add realistic suggestions that would move the district forward… and also align with what I’ve been able to see in other districts as a way to move forward,” Benes said.
Benes also recommended moving towards a closer alignment with the national health education standards, which are “all skills like decision making, analyzing influences, and goal setting.”
“Rather than having a nutrition unit or like a drug unit, you might have a decision making around substances unit, an advocacy around mental health unit. So we’re really focusing on shifting towards helping students develop the skills that they need forever,” Benes said.
School Committee member Philip McQueen said the recommendations that Benes made seem like a good way to move forward.
“I think this is really exciting in the idea of having thematic units as opposed to ‘this is why you shouldn’t do drugs kids,'” McQueen said. “It’s all part of the social, emotional health and well-being of our students and if they’re socially and emotionally healthy and in a good place, then they’re going to do better in school.”
School Committee Vice Chair Stacey Dahlstedt echoed McQueen, saying “our students’ health and wellness and well-being is just critical to their success.”
Toni-ann Rebelo, the district’s nurse coordinator, said that when she came to Lynnfield, she noticed right away that there was no health education at the elementary level and was taken back by that.
“I thought that was an error that we could improve on, we need to improve on, so that we could build a solid foundation for these kids to develop life skills,” Rebelo said. “They need to learn about their health. They need to learn about their physical fitness and nutrition. They need to learn how to make good decisions… (we need to) give kids the information before they’re in the position to have to make a decision when they don’t know how to handle it right or they don’t know what the best path is to take.”
Peggy Sallade, Substance Use Prevention Coordinator for A Healthy Lynnfield, worked with Benes throughout this review and thanked everyone who was involved, as it took “significant time and effort” being its first year.
“This is a roadmap for the district. It’s both short and long-term,” Sallade said. “I don’t think there’s the expectation that things are going to change immediately, but certainly there’s some momentum to look at some small changes upfront that might be helpful in the best interest of students.”
Allysha Dunnigan can be reached at [email protected].
