Upcoming events and activities.
A public hearing on the Healthy Schools Act of 2009 has been scheduled for Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. in the Council Chamber (Room 500). Attached is the formal hearing notice, which will be published in the D.C. Register on Friday. Public hearings are very a important part of the legislative process because they provide opportunities for the community to show support for or opposition to pending legislation as well as allow those interested to provide detailed comments, suggestions, and concerns about bills for inclusion in the public record. In addition to learning about the community’s views on legislation, hearings also provide Councilmembers with the opportunity to ask questions from the witnesses who testify. Therefore, if you are interested in the Healthy Schools Act, we encourage you to sign up to testify or submit written comments for the public record. (The attached hearing notice provides more information about how to do so.) Click here for notice of Hearing
Prior to the public hearing, our office will be convening a series of small, informal working group meetings on Thursdays to discuss each section of the legislation with interested stakeholders. These meetings will begin at 2:00 p.m. in Room 401 of the John A. Wilson Building at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., and will be scheduled as follows:
Thursday, January 7: Title II – School Nutrition
Thursday, January 14: Title III – Farm-to-School
Thursday, January 21: Title IV – Obesity and Physical Education
Thursday, January 28: Title V – Environment
Thursday, February 4: Title VI – Health and Wellness
These small meetings will be staff-only (i.e. Councilmembers are not expected to attend) and will provide an informal opportunity for those interested in each Title of the Healthy Schools Act to have an in-depth conversation about each provision and how to improve the legislation. Please let me know if you are interested in attending.
If you need additional copies of the Healthy Schools Act, as introduced, or the memorandum Councilmember Cheh sent her colleagues explaining the bill and its intent, both documents are available online:
http://www.marycheh.com/Press Releases/HealthySchools.pdf and http://www.marycheh.com/Press Releases/LegislativeMemo.pdf. Also, if you know of anyone else who would like to be added to my e-mail list, please let me know and I will be happy to include them.
We hope that you have a wonderful holiday and New Year, and we look forward to working with the entire community to develop the most effective legislation possible to significantly improve the health, wellness, and nutrition of students in the District of Columbia.
Thanks,
Drew
Drew Newman
Legislative Counsel
Office of Councilmember Mary M. Cheh
Council of the District of Columbia
EPA Offering Online Courses Through the Air Pollution Training Institute
EPA’s Air Pollution Training Institute (APTI) has developed several computer-based courses to support the APTI mission of providing technical air pollution training. The training is available in classroom, telecourse, self-instruction, and web-based formats. For more information, click here.