Sugar....Oh, Honey, Honey!

At the PTA meeting on Monday we discussed the issued of whether to serve soda at Cunha dances. As you can imagine, there were opinions are all sides of the issue. There are those who believe that at a special event like a dance, a special treat like sodas is acceptable and appropriate. There are those who believe who believe that given the District's Wellness Policy and the reality of how soda negatively impacts the health of our children, it is inconsistent and not appropriate to serve sodas at Cunha dances.
I'll come straight forward with the opinion of this blogger. We know that we have a growing obesity epidemic in our country which impacts marginalized communities, particularly lower income communities and communities of color at much higher rates. This seems to be true in CUSD as well. The 2006 Healthy Kids Survey estimates that approximately 18% of Half Moon Bay students in grades 5, 7 and 9 are overweight, and according to the 2006-07 California Physical Fitness test for Cabrillo Unified School District 30% of 5th grade students and 26% of 7th grade students were not in the Healthy Fitness Zone. At Cunha Intermediate School, 46% of our students are Caucasian and 44% are Latino. 45% of our student population qualifies for Free or Reduced Lunch. We have a significant population of student at high risk of obesity and other diseases related to unhealthy eating and lack of activity. As a public institution it behooves us to consider our programming from a public health perspective. We live in a county that is dedicated to childhood obesity prevention. The Get Health San Mateo task force has developed a strategic plan and has many resources available to us to consider healthy alternatives and effective strategies for educating our families and children about healthy living (www.gethealthysmc.org). We have an opportunity to provide healthy environments and for our children so that they learn healthy habits.
The question then is what this looks like in our day to day decision making. Do we award our students with candy? Do we sell chocolate for fundraisers? Do we serve sodas at dances? I, personally am not one for taking away all treats and sweets from our children. As a big fan of chocolate, I would not want anyone to tell me I can have my occasional indulgence. At the same time, are we contradicting our messages of health and wellness if we are serving soda shots and an abundance of sweets at events hosted by the school? The Get Healthy San Mateo Task force suggests striking a balance. Instead of going to extremes in either direction one option is the 80%/20% option. At any given event, for any given meal, or even planning a snack, be sure that 80% is healthy and only 20% on the more unhealthy side. Cunha has many efforts underway already and CUSD is increasingly serving healthy food options to students. There are many more things we could do and considering the food we serve to our students at dances may be one venue for some changes.
As it turns out, it is not up to the PTA to make the decisions about what food will be served at dances. It is up to the students. How will they decide? Do they have the information and education they need to make those decisions? What are the messages and practices they are getting at home and how do those foster healthy eating and healthy habits. I have found over the years that this topic is very personal for folks. It becomes political very quickly and can become divisive and understandably so. Food has very much to do with personal taste, cultural perspective, and one's life experience. It also has to do with economics and policy, which makes it a rich community topic. We welcome your thoughts and perspective, your personal experiences and practices. As with all communication we expect that all input will be delivered with respect and in such a way that facilitates dialogue.

Welcome to the Community Center!

Thank you to all those who came out for Open House last night! It was exciting to meet so many parents and students who will be coming to Cunha next year. It felt great to be able to welcome you to the new Community Center so that you can see how it is developing. Certainly having this physical space is a great way to further our efforts as we move toward a full-service community school model at Cunha. The opening of the Community Center is symbolic of the larger vision we are aiming to achieve.

Like the Community Center we want the school to continue to become a central hub of the greater Coastside community. The Community Center is a vibrant place filled with energy. It is open before and after school, during break, and during lunch. The Community Center is a welcoming and safe place. We want it to be a place open to all students, staff and parents and to meet a variety of needs and interests. Students come to play games, work on projects, do art, or just hang out on the couches and chat with friends. Students and staff intermingle to talk about their day or share concerns.

The Community Center is a work space and a central place for coordination. We hold meetings with community partners, meet with service providers, brainstorm ideas and strategize about the development of Cunha as a full-service community school. On the wall we have the image of a tree created by participants in last week’s World Café. This tree “rooted” in our four areas of program focus: Youth Development, Social Services, Community Involvement, and Parent Engagement. Our programs growing out of those areas provide a solid base on which we can build. We can see the support we receive when we “branch” out to the community: parents, teachers, students, service providers and school staff. And finally, from those branches come all of the creative ideas for programs, partnerships, and positive changes we are working toward for Cunha as a full-service community school.

We welcome and invite you to join us at the Community Center. We are looking for parents to help with supervision during high activity times of break and lunch. If you have creative ideas for programs or projects for students to work, please let us know. If you would like to help us develop the parent resource library, we would appreciate any time or resource you can offer.

The greater Community School Initiative will continue to grow and take shape. The Community Center has given a venue to manifest the values that drive our vision for the overarching initiative. We hope that you will continue to be a part of this process. You, and that means YOU, are a vital part of this school and community. Your involvement is essential so that we develop into a school that meets the diverse needs and interests of our greater Coastside community. We look forward to partnering with you to strengthen our school and community.

Welcome to Community Schools!

Cunha Community School hosted our annual "World Cafe" this past Wednesday, March 25th. The event brought together parents, students, administrators, teachers and service providers over delicious food and excellent community dialogue. The evening kicked off with Community Schools Coordinator, Anne Hipskind, describing the model of Community Schools and allowing folks to ask questions. To help explain the model, Anne delineated four main areas of our work: Youth Development, Community Outreach, Parent Involvement and Social Services. She spoke of integrating the Community Schools model more fully into Cunha's school system so that the school can truly be a place for ALL community members to come and thrive.

In order to exemplify the work that Community Schools does, two students from the Youth Advisory Board (Student VOICES) spoke about their experience participating in our programming. Anzony Contreras (pictured) and Estefania Villalobos described their Bullying Prevention Initiative, which involves organizing a poetry contest, doing classroom presentations, and displaying posters that create awareness of bullying and how students can prevent it. They also spoke about the "Health Day" that Student VOICES will be organizing in early May. But what makes these students' work unique? These students have used their voices and ideas to select and create these projects as a collective group. Community Schools coordinators are simply there to guide as needed and assist with bringing their ideas to life. As part of Youth Development, we know that engaging youth in this type of work helps them to build self-efficacy and self-esteem and facilitates their connectedness to their school.


Following the students' presentation, community members participated in a brainstorming activity, in which participants were asked to attach their ideas (in the form of branches and leaves) to a tree on the wall. Each branch included ways for participants to contribute to furthering the Community Schools model at Cunha. Each leaf contained action steps. Some amazing ideas were exchanged and new action plans are being woven into place. Amongst the ideas were:

• Train youth to be peer counselors
  
• Have the school facilitate carpooling for parents


• Parent volunteers during the school day


• Better communication to the community in both Spanish and English


• Parent Resource Network


• Students do community service in place of suspension


• Ask local business to facilitate after school programs like jewelry-making, etc.

We were so thankful to have such amazing ideas placed around our Community Schools Tree and are already putting many action steps in place! We would also like to invite you to write in to include your ideas and let us know how YOU can contribute! If you'd like to receive weekly emails of our blog postings, please email Anahita Modaresi at modaresia@cabrillo.k12.ca.us.

**Volunteers Needed! We are looking for volunteers who are willing to help supervise students in the Community Center during lunch (from 12:45-1:35). Please contact us if you can help!**