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Schools

Clarkstown Schools: No More Sweets

West Nyack students will see less sweets and treats during the school day in an attempt to combat health issues.

Kids don't often celebrate the start of the school year.

And with that day looming Tuesday for Clarkstown students, some will quickly learn that school celebrations also have changed in the district.

The district has put in place new rules this year that eliminates sugary and potentially dangerous foods from in-school celebrations, like birthdays and holidays. The changes are part of the recommendations from the district's School Health Advisory Committee, which consists of parents, principals and staff who were looking for ways to address issues like obesity, diabetes and allergies and make the district more health conscious, said district Superintendent Margaret Keller-Cogan.

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"There was a desire to have more control over the quality and types of food children have access to in school," she said.

The changes have been in the works for several years and are part of an overall move by the district toward providing healthier and safer food options for its students, such as using more whole wheat-based products and having more nutritious snacks available.

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The biggest change will be for elementary school students, who in the past, frequently had cakes and other sugary treats as part of classroom celebrations, such as birthdays. Those celebrations still will take place, but they will include healthier food options, such as fruit or vegetable platters. Parents will not be allowed to send in food for a classroom event unless it has been approved by the principal and meets the policy's guidelines.

The same will be true for holidays and events that include the entire school, such as Thanksgiving, when there will be lunchtime "healthy menu" events.

Food also can no longer be used as a reward or as part of a lesson.

Non-food celebration options the district is recommending include:

  • Party games and activities in which parents can provide game supplies, pencils, erasers, stickers, and other small school supplies instead of food.
  • Organize a special community-service project, such as inviting senior citizens in for lunch, make blankets for rescue dogs, etc. Parents can be involved in planning the project and providing needed materials.
  • Create a "Celebrate Me" book and have classmates write stories or poems and draw pictures to describe what is special about the birthday child.
  • Make the birthday child the teacher's assistant for the day, and allow them to do special tasks, like make deliveries to the office, lead the line, start an activity, and choose a game or story.

These non-traditional options will help the district change the perception of how special events can be celebrated, as well as make the students healthier and safer, Keller-Cogan said.

"We want to contribute to healthy life patterns for our students," she added.

Besides the celebrations change, not much will be different inside the classroom for Clarkstown students this year.

Despite a difficult budget, the district has been able to maintain its class sizes and provide the class options students have had in the past, Keller-Cogan said. The only classes that were eliminated were ones based on lack of enrollment not because of the budget, she said.

"We didn't see any significant changes in class sizes or the scope of classes available," she said.

The district actually was able to add back some staff recently thanks to money from the federal government. At its Sept. 1 meeting, the school board restored three full-time teaching positions and 11 teaching assistants. Two of the three full-time jobs are music teachers who travel among the district's schools; the other is a technology teacher.

The district will use about $394,000 of the approximately $1.4 million it received in federal aid to pay for those jobs. The remaining money will be put toward the 2011-2012 budget, in which the district is expecting to lose about $5 million from federal economic stimulus programs that are ending.

While those staff members' jobs were restored, the district still will be without freshman sports this year, a casualty of the budget. The district will have junior varsity and club teams available and it has "143 teams in the district so there are a lot of opportunities for students," Keller-Cogan said.

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