Course Registration

Students will soon begin signing up for classes for next year. The staff has made the final changes to the course registration booklet and students will sign up for their classes beginning in the middle of March. Mrs. Lindauer and I will meet with each of the high school classes to talk over the classes that are required and the many electives they have to choose from. Not only are the students encouraged to take a wide range of electives from many different topics, but they also have available to them courses that can be taken over the Iowa Communications Network (ICN), online, or at surrounding school districts. The goal in any class choice is to find a student’s interest area or future career choice, align their classes accordingly and prepare them for success beyond high school.

Healthy Kids Act

A new law regarding the health of our school age kids has gone into effect and the schools will begin to see some changes as a result. The purpose of the Healthy Kids Act is to establish physical activity requirements in K-12^th grades as well as to establish nutritional standards for food and beverages sold on school grounds during the school day. These requirements affect our lunch program, pop/juice machines, and any type of fundraiser we hold during the school day.

Jessie Kuehl, our food service director at Ed-Co, along with Mr. Wenger and I attended a Healthy Kids Act training session in early February that outlined the changes both the elementary and high school buildings would need to address. Strict guidelines surrounding sodium consumption, calories, and fat were the focus of the lunch program and as you may have guessed, caffeine and added sweeteners were spotlighted in regards to the vending machines.

Beginning 2010-2011 school year, all vending machines that sell anything other than water, 100% juice, or low fat milk will be turned off until after the last bell rings at 3:13 each day. In the past, some groups would do fund raisers like girl scout cookies or FBLA sweet grams sold around holidays, but that will no longer be the allowed. In addition to the items sold every day, there is also a part of this new law that requires all students K-12 to have a minimum amount of physical activity. The amount of activity is dependent upon the age and grade of the child.

More information about the Healthy Kids Act can be found at www.tinyurl.com/Iowa-HKA.