Though the school lunch contributed less than one-third of daily total nutrients, intakes of diet components related to cardiovascular disease risk were excessive. 60% to 80% of children exceed daily total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium intakes over recommended levels…
— Journal of School Health, May 1992
One of the skills we had to acquire — we, being the Charter Application Committee of the Pagosa Charter School Initiative — involved the Google Drive. Some of our Daily Post readers may be familiar with Google Drive, which is a free service available to people with Gmail accounts that allows you to post a certain quantity of digital documents “in the cloud” and also allows you to give other people access to those documents — access, from anywhere in the world — so they can read, edit, update and generally collaborate on the creation of those documents.
It’s not hard to learn to use Google Drive, if you have already become familiar with the Internet and with the creation and editing of digital documents. And if you have a healthy measure of patience.
The writing of the first draft of our charter school application — which we completed last Monday, except for a few tweaks to the proposed five-year budget, which are still in progress — was a collaborative effort by about six people, each of whom had focused on a couple of aspects of school operation and planning.
Those aspects included:
A. Executive Summary
B. Vision & Mission Statements
C. Goals, Objectives & Pupil Performance Standards
D. Education Program & Standards
D1. Philosophy & Culture
D2. Learning Plan
D3. Annual Calendar & Daily Schedule
D4. Professional Development
E. Serving Exceptional & Educationally Disadvantaged Students
F. Student Discipline, Expulsion, or Suspension
G. Plan for Evaluating Pupil Performance
G1. Assessments
G2. Data Management & Data Support for Teachers
G3. Performance Standards
H. Enrollment Policy & Outreach
I. Governance
J. Evidence of Support
K. Parent & Community Involvement
L. Budget & Finance
M. Facilities
N1. Transportation
N2. Food Program
O. Employees
P. Insurance Coverage
Q. Dispute Resolution Process
R. Waivers
This pretty much covers the basic details of the manner in which the Pagosa Peak Open School is proposed to operate. (The application also contains about 100 pages of appendices.)
The final section of the main application — “R. Waivers” — is rather important. The Colorado Charter Schools Act of 1993 wasn’t trying to make education more complicated, but rather, was trying to encourage innovation. In order to encourage innovation, it’s necessary to allow innovators a measure of freedom from the “established rules.” So charter schools are allowed to apply for waivers from certain operational requirements that control conventional public schools. We are allowed, for example, to hire teachers who have education and experience appropriate to an elementary school classroom, but who may not have a teaching certificate.
One of the sections particularly important to me, personally, was “N2. Food Program.”
I learned many things during my 13 years in the public schools, back in the 1950s and ‘60s, and I’m grateful for the effort put into my education by a long string of dedicated teachers. But I’m confounded by the fact that I was taught to factor quadratic equations and made to memorize the capitals of every country in Africa — but was never once told that extra-virgin olive oil — although high in heart-healthy antioxidants called polyphenols — is perhaps not the best oil for high-heat frying, due to its low smoke-point (about 400 degrees F.)
In my almost fifty years since graduating from high school, I have never once factored a quadratic equation, nor have I had any reason to name the capital of Uganda.
I have, on the other hand, overheated a lot of extra-virgin olive oil.
I’ve also written a few articles for the Daily Post, in recent years, about the ongoing (and seemingly growing) health crisis among American children. During the past century, medical advancements and research have greatly reduced the incidence of certain infectious diseases like smallpox, cholera and diphtheria — but despite the rising cost of healthcare in America, we are seeing an increasing (and as yet unexplained) incidence of childhood diseases: autism, asthma, diabetes, certain childhood cancers, arthritis, ADHD… the list goes on.
From a recent issue of Journal of the American Medical Association:
The rate of chronic health conditions among children in the United States increased from 12.8% in 1994, to 26.6% in 2006…
I imagine at least a few of our Daily Post readers will agree with me, if I refer to a doubling of chronic health conditions over a ten-year period — now affecting one out of every four American children — as “an epidemic.”
But epidemic or not, our healthcare industry currently offers no explanation for this startling rise in childhood disease. Should our schools be weighing in on this crisis? Is there anything a school can do, to try and address the health of its students, other than hire more part-time nurses? The Archuleta School District has made an effort in this regard, particularly at the Pagosa Springs Middle School. The Middle School’s health program was celebrated when the school won the Colorado Education Initiative’s “2015 Governor’s Award for School Health and Wellness.”
But the food… that the children are eating… is it really healthful? Many American schools feed a diet of highly processed, prepackaged, industrial food to their students. In many cases, the food items are chock full of refined chemical products — sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors and colors, artificial sweeteners and fats, and chemical preservatives — that greatly increase the shelf life of processed foods. This shift to industrial foods echoes a similar shift, among American families, in their own homes.
Some commentators argue that this shift — away from “home-cooked meals” towards “factory-prepared meals” — is at least partially responsible for the new epidemic of chronic diseases among American children. And numerous studies have suggested that dietary choices — particularly, food products high in sugar, corn syrup, and other processed chemicals — directly affect academic performance and social interactions, in school.
Can a healthier diet reduce the incidence of childhood disease? Can exposure to cooking skills and smart nutritional choices lead to a lifetime of better health?
The Pagosa Charter School Initiative board of directors decided, early on in their planning process, that teaching kids how to have a healthier relationship with food is a crucial aspect of a good education in 2016.
You can download a brief summary of the Pagosa Peaks Open School “Food Program” document here. As you can see if you review the program summary, the founding board plans to make nutrition and food preparation a central component of the education process at Pagosa Peak Open School…