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The Whole School - Whole Community - Whole Child, or WSCC model, is CDC’s framework for addressing health in schools. The WSCC model is student-centered and emphasizes the role of the community in supporting the school, the connections between health and academic achievement and the importance of evidence-based school policies and practices.

The WSCC model has 10 components:

1. Physical education and physical activity.
2. Nutrition environment and services.
3. Health education.
4. Social and emotional climate.
5. Physical environment.
6. Health services.
7. Counseling, psychological and social services.
8. Employee wellness.
9. Community involvement.
10. Family engagement.

Learn more about each of the 10 components.

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/wscc/index.htm

LevelUp Kids, Inc. is a non-profit organization and Park Hill School District community partner. Their mission: To provide access to services that empower families and create opportunities for low-income children to succeed in school and life.

Through years of providing portable dental services for children of low-income families, LevelUp Kids, Inc. become aware of more needs and barriers these children and their families face every day. The Miles of Smiles portable dental program was created to meet the oral health care needs of low-income children. LevelUp Kids, Inc. later expanded to add a school-based vision program called ICare4Kids.

Program history and details of each of these community-based programs to be included at the SHWAC presentation on April 10th.

To learn more: levelupkidsinc.org

As part of our CSIP objectives this year, the Park Hill School District is excited to begin the process of writing a comprehensive student well-being plan for the Park Hill School District. This plan will serve as a clear outline of all the initiatives and practices we currently have in place to support student well-being, as well as areas where we can continue to grow and improve.

To date, we have been engaging in learning, creating a student well-being team, listening to student voices, and reflecting on what we are already doing to support our students. As we know, students who are supported in their well-being are better positioned to succeed academically, and we are excited to continue our efforts in this area. Next steps include representation from the various components of the WSCC Model to help write and shape this comprehensive plan.

Collaborative insights and expertise will be invaluable as we come together to create a plan that reflects the collective efforts and commitment of our Park Hill community.

This spring, a team of teachers will revise the high school health curriculum. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education adopted the National Health Education Standards through the Society of Health and Physical Educators, SHAPE America. The SHAPE standards align with the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model in which Park Hill SHWAC team continues to promote and support.

The SHAPE standards include:

• Standard 1: Use functional health information to support health and well-being of self and others.
• Standard 2: Analyze influences that affect health and well-being of self and others.
• Standard 3: Access valid and reliable resources to support health and well-being of self and others.
• Standard 4: Use interpersonal communication skills to support health and well-being of self and others.
• Standard 5: Use a decision-making process to support health and well-being of self and others.
• Standard 6: Use a goal-setting process to support health and well-being of self and others.
• Standard 7: Demonstrate practices and behaviors to support health/well-being of self and others.
• Standard 8: Advocate to promote health and well-being of self and others.

The Nutrition Services Department recently completed both the USDA Administrative Review and Procurement Review—two rigorous audits that ensure we are meeting the highest standards in school nutrition. These evaluations are intended to ensure alignment with federal regulations that help promote the health and well-being of students.

The audits focused on key program areas, including, but not limited to:

• Menu Review: Evaluated nutritional components including sodium, saturated fat, and calories.
• Meal Service Compliance: Monitored meal service onsite at several schools.
• Food Safety: Ensured standard operating procedures are followed for safe food handling.
• Family Benefits: Examined our process for Free and Reduced Meal Applications.
• Resource Management: Reviewed the financial health of the school nutrition account.
• Civil Rights: Assured fair and equitable treatment to all program applicants/participants.
• Wellness Policy: Verified the local wellness policy in place meets USDA-established criteria.
• Professional Standards: Validated required annual professional development training hours.
• Procurement Review: Evaluated purchasing processes used to select vendors for goods and services; and more.

Federal school nutrition regulations are becoming increasingly focused on reducing added sugar, aligning school meals more closely with current dietary guidelines.

By July 1, 2025, the following product-specific sugar limits will take effect:

• Breakfast Cereals: Must contain no more than 6 grams of added sugar per ounce.
• Yogurt: Must contain no more than 12 grams of added sugar per 6 ounces.
• Flavored Milk: Must contain no more than 10 grams of added sugar per 8 ounce serving.

By July 1, 2027, schools must ensure that:

• No more than 10% of total weekly calories come from added sugars.

Nutrition Services is committed to prioritizing the well-being of our students. We aim to provide balanced, nutritious meals that fuel students for a full day of learning, while adhering to evolving nutritional regulations. We feed the future.

Park Hill School Nurses have kept busy taking care of our PH students and community during the 2024-2025 School Year. All schools across the district are now Project Adam Certified, meaning there is a Medical Emergency Response Team in every building, who perform at least 2 drills each school year to stay prepared to respond quickly to any medical emergency. Park Hill School District is now designated a “Heart Safe” School District.

Platte County Health Department visited our 4 Middle and 3 High Schools to provide Immunization Clinics again this year. They immunized 163 students, giving a total of 349 vaccines. These students are now up to date with immunization requirements for next school year.

Park Hill School Nurses completed 6,137 total Vision Screenings across the district this school year. They made 529 referrals to recommend parents/guardians have their student seen by an eye care professional for a complete eye exam. So far, 275 students have documentation that they have been seen by an eye care professional already.

LevelUp Kids, Inc. continues to be an amazing community partner, offering two different services for Park Hill students – dental services through the Miles of Smiles van and vision services through the ICare4Kids vision van. As long as a student remains eligible for services, each program will see students every year – becoming the student’s provider for services if the parent/guardian returns required permissions. Health Services is collaborating with district Social Workers, Karen Schaff (Park Hill LevelUp Kids Liaison), and LevelUp Kids to ensure we are meeting the needs of as many students as possible, collecting data to be able to report how many students they are taking care of, and reporting what services students received through the programs.

Park Hill Nurse leaders are involved with other projects for the Health Services team as well, such as Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement efforts across district health rooms, assessing the utilization of nurse substitutes and our Float Nurse team, and continued work in applying the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model to how we approach student well-being. All these projects focus on improving the services offered to students and collaborating with other teams across the district to increase the effectiveness of wrap-around care to better support Park Hill students in their educational journey.

The Missouri State Board of Education adopted new school counseling curriculum standards at its February meeting. While many of the standards are similar to the existing K-12 Grade Level Expectations for School Counseling, the new Missouri Learning Standards for School Counseling have some differences between them.

The new standards still have ones focused on Academic and Career Development. Instead of Social/Emotional Development, the new standards have a set focused on Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Development. There are many similarities between those sets of standards, both focusing on emotion regulation, self-management, and healthy relationships.

Middle school counselors are revising and updating their curriculum this year, and high school and elementary school counselors will do so beginning next year.

All of Park Hill’s curriculum is available on the district website. You can view elementary curriculum here (the K-5 School Counseling curriculum is under the Student Support Services tab) and secondary curriculum here (6-12 School Counseling curriculum is under the Counseling tab).

Feel free to reach out to Dr. Andy Schuerman, the coordinator of the K-12 school counseling program with questions. Dr. Schuerman can be reached by email at SchuermanA@parkhill.k12.mo.us or by phone at 816-359-5652.

Park Hill Social Workers Mission Statement: Park Hill Social Workers respectfully collaborate with students and families by removing barriers, as well as ensuring access to information, services, and resources, to promote successful futures and enhance well-being.

Continuing education and professional development ensure social workers remain effective, competent, and able to provide high-quality care to those in need. It helps them stay up to date with best practices, enhance their skills and competencies, adapt to law and regulation changes, and help with networking and support.

This year, 13 members of the social work team attended the School Social Work Association of Missouri’s annual conference. Seven more members of the team will attend the School Social Work Association of America’s national conference in April. Three of the social workers attended the Northland Prevention Conference and all 26 of the social workers, in addition to the school counselors and nurses, received training in a modality called Motivational Interviewing in November.

Park Hill School Based Mental Health Therapy Program Mission Statement: The Park Hill SBMHT will remove barriers and increase access to mental health services for ALL students, primarily focusing on the under/uninsured, McKinney Vento & Foster Care students, and those with high safety needs and limited/no access to care.

Caseload: 23 students on current caseload, 1 additional intake scheduled

Waitlist: 17 students waiting for therapy

• 7 elementary students
• 4 middle school students
• 6 high school students

Fitness Center: With equipment being updated each year, we have four new treadmills, two brand new ellipticals, a stretch trainer, new medicine balls and kettlebells. Group exercise classes have been expanded for both evening and morning sessions.

Health Screenings: We have completed nine onsite health/biometric screening dates with one more to go. We average just over 1400 employee screenings per year. This gives each employee a great snapshot of their height, weight, glucose and cholesterol levels with a quick 10-minute appointment close to their worksite.

The Mobile Mammography unit from Diagnostic Imaging will be back at District Office on April 10th for a full day of mammograms for Park Hill employees and spouses. They accept a broad range of insurances and offer the 3D services right at our door. We offer 3 different mobile mammography dates here at Park Hill each year.

Employee Assistance Program: Utilization in 2024 was just over 47%, exceeding the previous year at 44%. Of the cases opened for counseling services, 80% were new to BHS. BHS was able to resolve 96% of cases with our 4-session model with the other 4% successfully referred to long term outpatient care.

Flu Vaccine Event: The Park Hill Wellness Program offers flu vaccines to employees, spouses, retirees and their spouses each Fall. Just over 300 employees, retirees and spouses were vaccinated in our 2-day clinic.

Health Coaching: Forty employees of Park Hill took advantage of the free health coaching through Blue Cross Blue Shield in 2024.