BOE Recap: District Unveils New HS Fitness Center

The first phase of a district-wide renovation to its physical education department's fitness equipment is complete, and the district unveiled the high school's new fitness facility at Tuesday's Board of Education meeting.

The new high school facility is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, and similar upgrades were also made at the and at no cost to the taxpayers.

The high school's Physical Education department secured a $1.3 million grant in September — the Carol M. White Physical Education Program grant — and those Federal funds will be spread out over three years to improve not only district fitness facilities but community organizations as well.

In year one, money was given to the high school, middle school and Covert Elementary for fitness and physical education equipment, supplementary fitness curriculum and professional development. To combat obesity within the community, donations of Wii Fit Systems & TVs will be given later this month to The Hispanic Brotherhood, and .

This same system will be donated to all elementary Project Great programs and will be used by the physical education teachers in those buildings as well.

"This was an important aspect of the grant and incorporated to build important community relationships with our schools and provide opportunities for our students to be physically active outside of the school day," said district Athletics Director Carol Roseto.

Roseto said that in year two, money will be given to Greenhouse for fitness equipment and to Hewitt, Riverside, Wilson and Watson Elementary schools for supplementary fitness curriculum, physical education equipment and professional development. In year three, she said there will be professional development provided for the entire staff, an expansion of the current fitness center at the high school and supplemental equipment provided for each of the other buildings.

Roseto added that part of the requirements to receive the grant is implementing a data collection process designed to track the change of fitness and nutritional behavior, and student attitudes towards physical education and being physically fit.

She explained that four times this year during randomly selected classes, the physical education teachers at the high school, middle school and Covert Elementary school used the data collection process in their daily lessons. Students were asked to complete a Pacer fitness test, a three-day physical activity log, an attitude survey, a fruits and vegetable consumption survey, and were asked to wear pedometers for a period of four to seven days depending on their age to track the number of steps taken per day. All data is reported once a year to the federal government as a district-wide fitness snapshot of our students.

District physical education teachers will begin receiving professional development on the new equipment this week, Roseto said.