In early April the Scarborough School Board will receive its first look at the district’s newly written wellness policy developed by a committee comprised of school staff, administrators and residents during the past school year.

The committee reviewed the district’s entire health curriculum, including what is taught in gym and health and nutrition classes, along with the school lunch program, as part of the policy development.

Wellness Policy Committee Co-Chairman Ellen Beale said the draft policy has now been sent to the district’s administrative team, which reviews every policy change.

“I think the committee has done an outstanding job looking at the information,” Beale said.

The administrative team will review the policy and its recommended changes to determine whether the district can make them. Its decisions will be guided by several factors, including whether the new policy would reduce academic time or whether it would require additional district spending, Beale said.

Once the review is done, the policy will be sent to the school board. However, if the administrative team makes any changes to the policy, the school board will receive a copy of both documents.

The policy is fairly general and includes nutritional education goals, physical education goals, nutritional guidelines, and a way to measure the policy’s implementation.

Specifically, the policy specifies that nutritional education will be taught within the Health and Physical Education curriculum from kindergarten to 12th grade.

It also requires physical education be taught in every grade in the district and orders schools to promote developmentally appropriate physical activities within the instructional day.

All food sold during the school day will meet or exceed federal and state nutritional standards, according to the policy. Food sold at activities outside of the school day will include healthy food choices.

School staff selected by the superintendent will monitor, evaluate and report on the implementation of the new policy.

The policy is in response to a federal mandate requiring all school districts to adopt a wellness policy before the beginning of the next school year.

Scarborough’s policy drew a considerable amount of interest from community members who thought it was a good chance to make some broader changes in the district’s food program and in its health curriculum.

The more specific areas of the policy will be included in its guidelines, which have not been completed by the committee, Beale said. She said these guidelines would be submitted to the school board sometime in the fall.

The federal government did not require these guidelines, but the Scarborough School District developed them in response to community interest.