Superintendent Michelle Olsen told the Port Angeles School Board Sept. 25 that the district’s wellness committee — convened as required by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) — will increase meeting frequency this year to focus on staff and student wellness, nutrition and workforce mental health.

The committee met in May with about 15–20 staff and community members and worked on topics ranging from social-emotional learning and nutrition standards to workforce secondary traumatic stress. Olsen said the district had previously paused some committee work during a tight financial period but has resumed the wellness committee as an ongoing group.

Olsen said the district updated nutrition and fitness procedures to meet food-service evaluation requirements, completed a year-long staff mindfulness book study to build connection and resilience, and established a seventh-grade health class last year in response to Healthy Youth Survey data about student exposure to alcohol and drugs. The district will give the Healthy Youth Survey again in October to sixth-, eighth-, tenth- and twelfth-graders; Olsen said the district will analyze those results at the district and county levels.

Olsen also reported that a Kaiser Permanente rural-wellness grant opportunity has led to a new professional learning community that includes Sequim and other nearby districts. The district plans to continue partnerships with Peninsula Behavioral Health and ESD 114 on resilience and de-escalation training and will coordinate professional learning plans for the year with union partners.

The committee will also re-run a student wellness survey twice a year to flag students with unmet needs, and the district plans a full CEE survey for staff, students and families in February. Olsen noted that the committee will look at cell-phone use data and research options other districts are using to inform policy recommendations.

Board members expressed support for continued focus on staff wellness and thanked committee members for their work. No additional policy actions were taken at the meeting.