School Health Advisory Council______________________
January 29, 2013
Attendees: Lauralynn Arellano, Priscilla Decker, Amy Brown, Julie Copeland, Joy Culpepper, Lisa
Deaven, Charlie Foltz, Debbie Freno, Sharon Glosson, Sue Hernandez, Laura Horansky, Denise Jones,
Judy Kemple- Wheeler, Britt Klein, Donna Kuhnel, Karen Linnartz, Amanda Long, Katie Mahoney,
Mickey Maxwell, Dr. Mengden, Deanna Miller, Melissa Munsell, Rachel Naylor, Hallie Nikotich, Maria
Perez, Rebecca Ramos, Diane Rhodes, Tony Rodriguez, Ashley Rodriguez, Elizabeth Rosenblum,
Katherine Sanchez- Rocha, Brenda Saunders, Tyler Shoesmith, Melanie Slaga, Cindy Tello, Elizabeth
Tobias, Kit Tomlinson, Stephen Tovar, Brian Walter, Carolyn Wheat, Leticia Williams, Josefine Wolfe,
Nicole Townsley, Allyson Tollette, Katherine Velasquez, Shannon Grona
Speakers: EDCASA: Dr. Mengden, MDA: Lauralynn Arellano, NEISD Family Support Services: Tyler
Shoesmith
Rachel: Welcome. Please review the minutes from the last meeting.
Brian Walter: Welcome. Let’s go over the minutes. Do we have a motion to approve the minutes?
Minutes Approval:
First: Amanda Long
Second: Cindy Tello
Donna is sick and having a hard time speaking so Brian will take over for today.
Rachel: We have Nicole Townsley from American Lung. Elizabeth Roseblum this is her first meeting.
Fat Talk Free________________________________________________________________________
Melissa: EDCASA came into all 13 middle schools and talked to all Health students. After going through
the class, they wanted to make some adjustments to the presentation.
Dr. Mengden:
Reason for Revisions: We wanted to make it friendlier to 6th graders so we wanted to change some
wording. We want to make sure the program is following what the research says needs to be done to
prevent negative body image or change negative body image.
Revisions:
From Ed White, we heard not to combine the classes and to slow down the movie since it is pretty fast.
We are not sure if we are going to be able to slow it down. They loved the banner activity.
Slide 3: Old slide, changed wording to “You’re too short”, “Your hair is too frizzy”, “You’re too skinny”
since that is a few more ways they bully themselves. Removed “Look at these fat rolls.” That is our
generation.
Slide 4: Proposing to change wording to “You look swoll. Have you been working out? Added nickname
“Gordo.”
Added handout: Self Esteem and Body Image Definitions.
Slide 6: Changed name to Negative Trashketball
Slide 8: Changed name to “You’re So Boss Toss”
Slide 9: Removed
Slide10: Removed # 1. We moved each one up. Added # 5 “Practice, practice, practice”
Add Video: We already contacted NESA about filming. We plan to come back in March just to have the
videos approved. Two scenarios: In the girl’s lunchroom, all the girls have their lunch food in front of
them. One of the girls doesn’t touch the food. She says she can’t eat because she will get bigger. She
offers to give her lunch away. One girl agrees to do the same. Two girlfriends change the conversation.
That is the biggest question we get is “How do you do it? How do you change the conversation?”
The second scenario is boys talking together in a gym waiting for a tryout. One boy makes a comment
aimed at insulting two boys and their body types. One student will be short and scrawny and one student
will be big and slow. This group of boys will primarily be followers of the conversation except one boy
who is brave enough to call the others out. We want to have one boy who looks like an excellent athlete to
tell the others to quit talking bad about the others and based on their body, you cannot tell if they are good
athletes based on their body type.
We are teaching them how to stand up to each other.
SHAC Member 1: Do you think you could have a boy harassing a girl or vice versa? It’s not always the
girls harassing girls.
Dr. Mengden: I think that is a great idea for high school videos but since they are in 6th grade, we decided
to stick with single gender. The video is going to have high school kids playing middle school kids.
Slide 11: New slide with existing handout. We are going to have NESA students again make video like a
David Letterman Top 10 to make it more interesting.
Melanie Slaga: Are you getting high school students that look like junior high kids so that the students
watching the videos don’t feel like they are behind developmentally?
Dr. Mengden: We have expressed that we want the freshman sophomore students so they are younger.
We thought that if we filmed the video at Bush MS, for example, which has an excellent theatre arts
program, it might be awkward for the Bush students viewing that video.
SHAC Member 2: Are they high school students pretending to be middle school students or are they high
school students modeling the correct behavior?
Dr. Mengden: They are pretending to be middle school students. We want them to see the video, relate to
it, and learn the verbiage.
Slide 12: We made last slide not blank and added “Change the Conversation.”
SHAC Member 3: Do you also address talking on social media?
Dr. Mengden: That topic is addressed more in what the teacher says but we do address it.
Motion to Approve Changes to Fat Talk Free:
First: Carolyn Wheat
Second: Amanda Long
Vote: In favor say I (All Say I)
All opposed say nay (None)
Motion carries.
Katherine Velasquez: What type of assessment are we doing to measure the success?
Rachel: Any survey that goes out to students needs to come back through SHAC. If that is something that
EDCASA wants to look at, then they can bring that back in March.
Dr. Mengden: This program has shown to be effective in the college population. We changed the wording
to fit 6th grade students.
Amanda Long: What time of year do you show this video?
Melissa Munsell: October and April
Amanda Long: So the surveys would be at the beginning of their 6th grade year and the post will be at the
end?
Rachel: The pre-survey will be given to the students before we even start talking about anything and the
post-survey will be given, like a final, directly after the unit. Tracking the student will be the hard part to
see if they are still making the right decision in their freshman year. Our main goal as a department is for
students to make life changes based on the content that we provide them and that is really hard to get data
on. We are looking at a variety of ways to get that data.
Rachel: Amanda suggested that we also get parent input. We are looking for feedback since that is the
only way that we can improve our programming.
Muscular Dystrophy Association_______________________________________________________
Brian Walter: Shares personal story about his son and introduces Lauralynn Arellano from Muscular
Dystrophy Association.
Lauralynn Arellano:
Muscle Walk is on March 2 at Morgan’s Wonderland. We are also giving out a flying for the
Whataburger School Challenge.
Muscular Dystrophy Association is an organization that helps raise money for people with neuromuscular diseases.
Our local chapter serves Fredricksburg all the way down to Brownsville, which is the entire South Texas
area.
Since the walk will be held at Morgan’s Wonderland, it will be very beneficial to us to get North East
ISD’s approval since it is right down the road.
We watched video about Muscular Dystrophy Camp.
The Muscle Walk is on March 2nd. There is no registration fee. The goal is just that every runner raise
$100 and that gets you a t-shirt. Many teams set goals for themselves. It is a one-mile leisurely walk. No
pets please.
Next Speaker:
Rachel introduces next speaker, Tyler Shoesmith.
Family Support Services________________________________________________________________
Tyler Shoesmith: We mostly work with the at-risk students in the district, such as drop-outs, pregnant
students.
Please see presentation online at the NEISD SHAC website.
My Associate Superintendent is Dr. Mark Scheffler. And my direct supervisor is Ann Mcnabb.
Ms. Mcnabb supervises hearing officers, attendance officers, discipline conferences, grievance hearings.
There are many things that come through our office.
In our department we also have School Age Parenting Program, McKinney-Vento Homeless Project and
Dropout Prevention. All these programs are technically dropout prevention programs.
School- Age Parenting Program:
We have 4 school-age parenting instructors. One of them doubles as a case manager. This program
provides pre-natal and post-partum instruction so that those students who become parents while in school
still stay on track to graduate. Once we identify a student on the campus that is pregnant we conference
with the parents to get the student the help they need.
We make special accommodations for students who are not able to come to school because of pregnancy
complications. They may come to our campus for 4 hours per week and that counts as 40 hours for that
week. Once the student gives birth, we provide instruction for up to 6 weeks after since a daycare facility
will not be able to accept them until then. When you walk on our campus, you may see 1 instructor, 4
students and their babies. The assignments come from the teachers on the home campus and then we
facilitate the instruction. We make sure they stay on track and we stick with them until they graduate.
Some campuses have more students in this program than others.
Tyler shows graphs that represent the amount of students enrolled in their programs from 2009-2010 to
2011-2012. The graph shows that in 2009-2010 there were 231 student parents. This number includes
new parents and also parents who carried over from the previous year. In 2011-2012, the number is now
186 students. It really depends on how many students come into the district. Some parents have issues in
one district and so they move into our district at the last minute and then they are included in our
numbers.
Brenda Saunders: Do you have any data that shows that the girls who had children in high school still
have the same boyfriends?
Tyler: That is more of a campus conversation that a counselor should have with the students.
Kit Tomlinson: Do you have data that separates the new pregnancies from the carry-overs?
Tyler: Yes we have that data but we only have a limited presentation time.
Brenda Saunders: Do you have very many repeat parents who have another child during high school?
Tyler: We don’t have very many repeat parents.
In response to Amanda Long’s comment, Tyler says: Twenty years ago, we had our own campus. Now
these students stay on their home campus until they give birth unless they have complications. Our
campuses are very supportive since the home campus is where they get the best instruction. Five percent
of our job is instruction and 95% is case management. We work with CPS frequently since some cases are
very complicated and some programs blend together. We work to make our students self-sufficient so
they can continue after high school.
Tyler goes over the graphs in the presentation very quickly.
SHAC Member 4: How do you find out if a girl is pregnant?
Tyler: It comes up from the campuses. It can come from nurses or the student may tell a teacher that she
likes.
Brian Walter: The boys don’t carry the responsibility of the pregnancy like the girl does.
SHAC Member 5: Do you have any fathers that are involved in the programs?
Tyler: We have some fathers but not many. If they are under 18, the parents have to sign off for them to
participate. It is voluntary participation for the fathers. On some campuses, we have parenting classes for
them.
McKinney-Vento Homeless Project:
The primary goal is to support educational success for homeless students and eliminate barriers for them.
The big barrier is that many of these students don’t have documentation to support themselves. They
don’t have birth certificate, social security card, etc. These students are automatically enrolled pending
approval which can take up to 30 days.
The most common form of homelessness is Doubling-Up, which is moving in with a family that has an
established residence.
The act protects these students and helps them stay at their school of origin even if they move out of the
area. There are some families out on the streets but most of them are doubled-up.
I am the district liaison for homeless students. Every district by law is required to have one. We are also
funded through a federal grant which cycles every three years. This grant allows us to support my
liaisons. These liaisons ensure enrollment even if the student leaves our district and goes to another
district. Because of a family doubling-up, they may not be able to provide proof of residence without the
apartment complex finding out. If the apartment complex finds out, they may kick them out. As a
department we verify their residence and get the needed documentation without the apartment complex
finding out about it. We work with the other district to make sure everything is in line to get these
students enrolled.
In 2011-2012, we had 1,126 homeless students in our district.
SHAC Member 5: What is your definition of homelessness?
Tyler: It is the HUD definition of homelessness. Basically, if person is without fixed, adequate and
regular shelter, then they are homeless. Every situation is different.
Kit Tomlinson: I notice there are more young students who are homeless. Do you know why?
Tyler: It is a national trend.
Kit: Do you know why it tapers off as they get older?
Tyler: Usually it is the age and maturity of the parent.
Tyler continues to go over graphs in the presentation very briefly. Most of the families are doubled-up.
Dropout Prevention:
Typical characteristics are: 9th or 10th grade repeater, 17 years or older, have been retained at least once,
enrolled this school year, economically disadvantaged or more than 15 referrals. We have a big instance
of students “bouncing” out of our district. Out of the 250 dropouts 142 of the students “bounced”
meaning they did not even stay in our district an entire school year. We are looking at programs to
identify these students right away so we can help them. We do what we can but we can’t catch everyone.
We have a list of potentially off-track kids but we don’t know which ones are going to drop out.
We have a rolling average of 450 kids. These kids may not be able to be found, they are refusing to come
to school, they are in court, they missed court hearings, etc. These are students we are looking for.
Any student that the campus is unable to locate, I try to find them. I have access to Facebook, Twitter,
criminal databases, etc. We have a lot of students leave around Winter Break and they start trickling back
in a few weeks after. Students begin to leave again once it gets closer to the end of the school year once
they realize they may not be promoted or they may not be able to graduate.
In September, we have until the last Friday in September to recover every dropout. Every campus is
looking for these kids. The finding is easy but it is hard to get them to come back. If they are over 18, we
cannot force them to come to school.
Intervention and Prevention:
During the normal school year, we provide intervention for students who are flagged as “Off-Track” in
our program called Compass.
Over-age middle school program was piloted by White and Nimitz Middle Schools to help keep these
students on track to graduate. Most students drop out of high school in 9th and 10th grade. We only had 6
dropouts in middle school last year.
ACHIEVE is a credit recovery program run on campus, ACE, Early Warning, Homeless Programs,
Recovery which is done all through the year. It is always dropout season.
SHAC Member 6: Are there classes aimed at parents to help them get their students to school?
Tyler: Counselors and Assistant Principals communicate with them. Family Specialists offer parenting
classes and Adult Education offers them as well but it is up to the parent to go.
These parents are fully aware of how many days their student has missed. They have had contacts, home
visits but there is only so much the district can do. We provide transportation and other services. They can
be taken to court but they are just fined in court.
SHAC Member 7: How is the pilot “Over-Age Middle School” program going?
Tyler: It is going very well. We had 17 kids at White Middle School and 19 kids at Nimitz. The program
is made to take 7th grade students who are a year behind and jump them into 9th grade and get them back
on track. We have great concerns about their testing results but they were a potential dropout and now we
have gotten them back on track. We are going to expand the program when we have the funding.
Rachel: If you have any further questions, please write them down or email them.
Katie Mahoney- Mayor’s Fitness Summit:
Mayor Castro spoke about Siclovia on April 7th ,Fitness in the Parks and the San Antonio 2020 plan. The
Director from the Center for Science and the Public Interest from Washington, D.C. spoke about
advocating for healthier foods and marketing towards children. MetroHealth spoke about the Youth Risk
Behavior Survey results. We had a student ambassador from NEISD talk about school gardens. Dr.
Longloy spoke about non-food fundraising. Susan Galindo spoke about NEISD Right Bites to
incorporate healthier items on the concession stand menus. It was a well-rounded look at the health of San
Antonio.
Rachel: Tuscany Heights Run for the Heights is now a Mayor’s Fitness Council endorsed event.
Denise Jones- Tuscany Heights PTA:
Denise reminds everyone about the event on February 23rd.
Sharon Glosson- School Nutrition Services:
PTA Lunchroom Committee invitation offered to parents.
Nicole Townsley- American Lung Association:
Nicole talks American Lung Association programs and gives out flyers.
Meeting adjourned.