Benny Westcott
At the Aug. 14 Sweet Home School District board meeting at the District Office, Kevin Strong, the district’s business manager, gave a presentation on the district’s nutrition services program.
He noted that the district has not contracted out its nutrition services department to outside companies like many school districts have done. He cited the fact that many other school district nutrition services programs are operated by Sodexo, a European based multi-national company with over 400,000 employees.
Strong said the Sweet Home School District tries to buy its food locally as much as possible. During the 2022-23 school year, over $160,000 of food was purchased from vendors located within 35 miles of the district. The district also has a “Buy America” policy in place stating that it has to procure American grown, made, and canned products as much as it can.
There are some exceptions to the policy. For example, very few bananas are grown or cultivated in the U.S., so the district uses imported bananas. When the district does buy imported products, Amber Walker, the nutrition services director, has to fill out paperwork and keep it on file.
Challenges to buying even more locally include menu planning over a month into the future, since the district needs to be sure it’s going to have the ingredients to serve what is planned. Another issue is limited refrigerator and freezer space. Strong noted that Sysco helps by delivering the food the district wants in the quantities it needs weekly.
During the 2022-23 school year, the district provided 222,407 student lunches and 107,937 student breakfasts. It also provided meals for the Oregon Department of Forestry and United States Forest Service Fire School, the summer lunch program, and to the local Boys & Girls Club for its summer lunch program.
There is no meal cost for any student attending a district operated school because the district completed a Community Eligibility Provision application. To participate, the district must comply with all the nutritional standards in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program, as well as with all of the federal government’s procurement standards.
In other meeting action, the board:
-Heard from high school teacher Michelle Snyder about how during the last few years students in her anatomy and physiology class have partnered with the MIKE program and the Western University of Health Science’s College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Northwest to learn more about healthcare professions. The program, which started in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, has included monthly zoom meetings and field trips to Western University labs, all with plenty of interaction with medical students.
“These two groups came to us and asked us to be a pilot program, and I thought how in the world can we make this successful on Zoom?” Snyder said. “But we did.”
She was struck by how her high school students relate to the medical students in the program.
“The amazing thing about this partnership is that I can get in front of students all day long and tell them all the things, but then when some young person with no gray hair comes in and backs up what I just said, they’re like ‘Oh, she’s not lying to us,'” the teacher mused.
The program is opening eyes to previously unconsidered professions.
“We’ve talked with our students about the healthcare worker shortages in the United States, and the many opportunities that these students have available to them,” Snyder said. “A lot of people think that the only health care occupations are nurses and doctors, but we’re exposing Sweet Home students to so much more than that.”
Snyder said that the district is now focusing on expanding the health occupations program to the Junior High.
-Heard Board Chair Jason Redick recognize Don Hopkins, who died on July 25 at the age of 86, for his “many contributions to the Sweet Home School District.” Hopkins served the district in numerous roles, including Sweet Home Junior High School vice principal, Holley Elementary School principal, Crawfordsville Elementary School principal, board member and board chair, and budget committee member and chair. Redick added that most recently, Don and his family established an endowment fund with the Sweet Home Alumni Foundation “that will benefit graduating Sweet Home High School students in perpetuity.”
-Heard Snyder speak again, this time as the union vice president for certified staff in the district.
“Our relationship with the district office has been phenomenal,” Snyder said. “We are in an amazing teacher shortage, but the things that the district office is doing so the kids in our community can be educated this year has been quite incredible. And the adults on our staff that are taking on roles that they normally haven’t taken on in order to cover some of those shortages have been quite amazing. I’m looking forward to the beginning of the school year.”
-Approved the donation of 210 five dollar gift cards from Oregon Real Estate Professionals to distribute to all six district schools to be used as positive behavior incentives.
-Accepted resignation from Addison Reukauf, language arts/social studies teacher at the junior high, effective Aug. 1, 2023.
-Approved the hire of Ashley Patton, second grade teacher at Oak Heights for the 2023-24 school year.
-Approved the hire of Rebecca Raab, biology and integrated science teacher at the high school for the 2023-24 school year.
-Approved the hire of Hannah Humpherys, sixth grade teacher at Hawthorne Elementary for the 2023-24 school year.