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Medford is updating the wellness policy across the school district, setting eight goals to address the well-being of not only students, but staff as well.
The School Committee on Aug. 24 unanimously voted to approve the policy submitted by Director of Health Services Jennifer Silva.
Schools are required by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to update their wellness policies every three years.
Silva said Medford’s policy “looks at creating a school environment that supports the whole child, looking at student health, physical activity, social-emotional well being and how closely that is connected to how our students learn and succeed.”
Silva said part of the DESE requirement is that a wellness committee be formed and meet four times a year. She said Medford formed its committee during the 2025-26 school year.
The committee has about 25 members and includes administrators, staff, families, students, and other community members. Silva said many of the students on the committee have been asked to join the group during the 2026-27 academic year.
Medford also partnered with a DESE coach and the John C. Stalker Institute of Food and Nutrition at Framingham State University in making sure all the regulations, requirements and best practices are being followed.
“Really, overall, this policy is looking at the fact that healthy students are in a better position to learn, participate, and thrive in our schools,” Silva said. “And that’s really what we’re doing with this policy: creating an environment that allows students to make those healthy choices every day and be supported in making those healthy choices.”
School Committee member Jenny Graham asked for a comparison of the policy being proposed and the one the district had been following.
Silva said there will be major changes based on recommendations from DESE.
“I’m looking at the old policy and, yeah, it’s barely a policy,” School Committee member Paul Ruseau said.
What’s in the new policy?
Silva said there are eight sections and goals associated with the new wellness policy, the first being the establishment of a committee and its responsibilities.
The second, said Silva, is putting U.S. child nutrition standards in place throughout the district. That could mean anything from providing appealing meals to students to providing them with free portable water during the day to establishing guidelines around cleaning surfaces.
The biggest change, she added, comes with scheduling meal times. Silva said DESE requires students have at least 30 minutes for lunch, with 20 minutes set aside for actual eating.
And, she said, there needs to be training to make sure “we’re not bringing food in to share with students,” and that includes beverages.
School Committee member Erika Reinfeld stated that the district already has a food allergy policy, and she said she wanted to know if that’s something that will be connected to the wellness policy.
Silva said the district is already looking at expanding the allergy policy, but it will indeed be part of the new wellness package.
Section 3
The policy also includes setting nutritional standards for beverages.
Silva said Massachusetts defines a “school day” as midnight to three minutes after the final bell rings. She said any food or beverages provided during the “day” within a school environment must meet Massachusetts nutritional standards, and that includes during any fundraisers or school events.
Section 4
Medford will also be reviewing wellness promotion and marketing goals within the district that do not meet nutritional standards. Silva said that means vending machines have to comply and the district cannot have any logos that feature unhealthy products in schools, or even the scoreboards.
She said the idea of having food incentives as rewards for students also has to be abolished.
Section 5
Silva said Medford schools will be helping students figure out just what it means to make healthy choices. Food literacy and nutrition education will feature in the new policy, she said, and the district will continue promoting fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and other farm-to-school products.
Section 6
Physical education and physical activity goals will be set out for the district. At the top of the list is that 20 minutes of recess be established during the day, preferably before lunch as a suggested best practice.
Silva said administrators will go over the state’s frameworks around physical education and nutrition standards to make sure Medford meets those goals as well as its own.
Sections 7 and 8
Silva said the state requires its districts to set standards for Sections 1 through 6. But, she said the wellness committee added two more for Medford.
“It’s something that we strive towards and are working towards,” she said. “And if you look at the language, a lot of the language is around striving towards these goals and not necessarily that this is going to happen, but that really we would like to see this happen in our schools.”
In Section 7, the committee determined wellness goals, promoting physical activity, and providing opportunities should also apply to the district’s staff.
Silva said the goal is to possibly provide staffers with fitness classes, professional development, and even healthy snacks during meetings to align with the district’s nutrition standards.
For Section 8, Silva said, the committee is looking at setting up goals around what it means to provide and promote social and emotional wellbeing for all its students.
With no more questions or discussion, the School Committee voted 7-0 to approve the new policy, which will go into effect during the upcoming academic year.
Roberts roof/solar project
During the evening, the School Committee received an update from Chief Operations Officer Ken Lord and PCA360, the city’s owner's project manager overseeing the roof/HVAC replacements at the Roberts, Missituk, and Brooks elementary schools.
Assistant Project Manager Alex Leus told the body that submission of schematic plans to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) under its Accelerated Repair Program for the new roof and solar installation at the Roberts Elementary School was expected to happen on Aug. 27 in order to meet a deadline for the MSBA board meeting on Oct. 8.
Once approved by the state, Leus said, the Medford City Council will need to approve funding for the project, which is estimated to be about $2.77 million for this phase. The city will be reimbursed at 53.32% by the state.
Construction is estimated to begin at the end of the 2027 school year and run into 2028, with a majority of the work being done during the summer and holidays in order to keep disruption to a minimum.
A similar Missituk project will reportedly start in 2027, followed by the Brooks in 2028.
During a June 15 meeting, the School Committee heard a presentation from RFS Engineering and PCA360 regarding the project. Read that story here.
Odds and Ends
During the evening, the School Committee heard presentations on and voted unanimously, 7-0, to support the following:
• Presented by Lord: To re-allocate $190,000 back into the capital budget for other school facilities projects.
Lord told the School Committee that Medford had received the money in the supplemental fiscal year 2027 state budget. The state money, he said, will cover needed capital projects.
An approved $210,000 in the FY27 school budget for those projects, he said, is no longer needed.
Members felt the money should go back into the schools for other capital projects.
• Presented by Ruseau: To approve updated School Committee rules, as presented to the body in June.
• Presented by Reinfeld: To approve a meeting between the Subcommittee for Curriculum and Assessment and Kim Talbot, assistant superintendent for academics and instruction, regarding test taking and test preparation for students.
• Presented by Reinfeld: To approve support for education around e-bike safety.
• Presented by Graham: To thank members of the Medford High School Building Committee who are leaving and to welcome new members.
• Presented by Graham: To support the E-Rate program, created by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and operating since 1997. The program lowers the cost of broadband internet access and internal network connections that schools and libraries purchase through discounts ranging from 20% to 90%, scaled to the share of low-income students a district serves.
On June 25, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 26-41), opening WC Docket No. 26-133, which asks, among many other questions, whether the E-Rate program should be narrowed, reoriented, or discontinued.
The resolution asked the body affirm the following:
1) That the E-Rate program was essential to the operation of Medford Public Schools, and to join the #SaveOurERate campaign of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and its partners in urging the Federal Communications Commission to preserve and fully fund E-Rate.
2) Direct the superintendent to file a comment on behalf of the Medford Public Schools in WC Docket No. 26-133 through the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System, before the close of the comment period, stating the district’s annual E-Rate funding and the specific services that funding supports, and to attach an official copy of this resolution to that filing.
3) Directs the superintendent to transmit official copies of this resolution to Chair Brendan Carr, Commissioner Anna Gomez, and Commissioner Olivia Trusty of the Federal Communications Commission, Gov. Maura Healey, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, Congresswoman Katherine Clark, state Sen. Patricia Jehlen, state Rep. Paul Donato, state Rep. Sean Garballey, state Rep. Christine Barber, the Medford City Council, Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, the Board of Trustees of the Medford Public Library, and the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.
4) The body also encouraged every school committee in the Commonwealth to adopt a resolution of like effect.
The next meeting of the Medford School Committee will take place on Monday, Sept. 14, in person at City Hall. The meeting will also be televised via Zoom and on the Medford Public Schools YouTube channel.
