Brown County Schools will be redesigning the Wellness Committee to be collaborative in ensuring stakeholders have a voice towards BCS students’ and staff wellbeing and happiness.

Our committee is going to focus on three pillars this year: mental, social, and physical well-being. Our vision with the newly designed Wellness Committee is to help generate ideas from different stakeholders building out a safer and stronger foundation for our students and staff.

Our goal for the mental wellness pillar will be to raise awareness on mental health and increase opportunities for our students and staff to ease their minds.

We want to educate our schools on the importance of proper sleep, nutrition, and taking a break from life stressors. Whether that be taking 15 minutes to go outside to walk, play catch, draw/color, or eating a proper meal, we want our students and staff to understand the importance of managing the stress we endure daily.

Implementing this in school may include mental breaks in the classroom or giving students and staff resources on managing stress.

Our social wellness pillar will focus on ensuring every child feels connected in and outside of the classroom. Our students and their safety and success is our first priority.

We want to ensure our students feel connected to our educational staff in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom at extracurricular events.

Our students deserve to feel supported by teachers, counselors, and all other staff members throughout their journey in Brown County Schools.

This allows for connections on different levels in school which will create stronger bonds between staff and students for higher success rates in the classroom.

In school, this may look like a student sharing their jersey with a teacher who means something to them or a teacher listening to the concerns a student may have.

Our pillar of physical wellness will be focused on educating our students about the importance of nutrition and physical activity needed to support a healthy body and mind.

Our students’ bodies and minds are continuing to grow and develop. Educating on nutrition with all the proper food groups as well as staying physically active is vital to this development.

Another goal will be to educate our students on the negative effects smoking, vaping, drugs and alcohol can have on growing students minds and bodies.

In school, this may include “Fun Fridays,” educational seminars on drugs and alcohol, and allowing time for all students to have an opportunity to eat a free breakfast and have access to snacks throughout the school day.

As part of our committee this year, we also want to incorporate a district newsletter to provide additional communication to students, staff, families and the entire school community on our pillars of wellness.

We hope to share educational information, resources in our community, and the ways we are incorporating these goals across the district. Our newsletter may come as various videos of schools implementing these changes, a template showing educational information one may not know about certain topics related to our goals, or even sharing various resources our community has to offer.

Our Wellness Committee is committed to helping Brown County Schools succeed mentally, physically, and socially from the time they begin their educational journey with us and reaching beyond the Monday after graduation.

We will strive to be better for our students, staff, and families and relentlessly seek solutions to help our students triumph on all levels of education.

Elizabeth Patrick is the corporation nurse for Brown County Schools. She can be reached by emailing [email protected].