Published: July 21, 2008 09:36 pm         

Raleigh board discusses nutrition

Talks include policy changes, update on summer projects

The Raleigh County Board of Education discussed issues surrounding changes in the Standards for School Nutrition policy and received updates on summer maintenance projects at local schools during a regular meeting Monday.

On July 1 changes to the Standards for School Nutrition policy were made that say a category defined as “other foods” cannot have more than 200 calories per product/package with limits calling for no more than 35 percent of calories from fat, no more than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat, no more than 0.5 gram of trans fat, no more than 35 percent of calories from sugar or no more than 200 milligrams of sodium.

Other foods include foods given or sold to students outside the school food/snack program such as sodas, snacks, ice cream and other items.

The board also approved a motion to increase the prices for adult school meals from $2.56 for breakfast to $2.65 and the lunch price to go from $3.42 to $3.50. Rose Cook, county food services director, provided the explanation of the nutrition policy changes and pricing changes for meals.

Area schools that have summer maintenance projects include Shady Spring High School, Woodrow Wilson High School, Lester Elementary School and Independence High School.

Construction at Shady Spring is going slower than anticipated due to excavation issues because of large amounts of slate and other hard rocks found in the soil. New windows for the school will be in place July 28. Rerouting of the hot and cold water units is also being performed throughout the school.

At Woodrow Wilson, it was reported that the air conditioning will be running in the school Aug. 1. At Lester, painting and tiling of classrooms has begun. An addition at Independence has been completed.

Various roof projects are still under way throughout the county.

The next board meeting will be Tuesday, July 29. For more information call 256-4500 or go to the BOE Web site at http://boe.rale. k12.wv.us.

— E-mail: amorici@register-herald.com