EXCHANGE: McHenry County schools focus on lifelong fitness

WOODSTOCK, Ill. (AP) - The ball moved haltingly as the fifth-graders in Jackie Anderson’s physical education class scrambled to get open.

The game was a new one, rolled out as part a physical education curriculum overhaul for kindergarten through the fifth grade at Woodstock Community Unit School District 200’s six elementary schools.

The role school districts play in keeping kids healthy and active has garnered increasing attention over the past decade as childhood obesity numbers worried parents, health officials and policy makers.

But despite the attention - or perhaps because of it - fewer parents would say their school is helping their child be healthier, down 13 percentage points since 2011, according to a Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll released this past September.

The problem might be that not all school districts have the resources, said Keely Krueger, District 200’s director of grants, language and culture.

And not all schools have a grant writer, added Melinda Etnyre, a physical education program instructional coach.

“You have a set amount of resources, and you’re trying to do a lot in many different areas,” Krueger said. “That’s why we are very lucky to have this grant because it is helping us to move things ahead even faster than we would normally be able to do.”

District 200 is wrapping up the first year of a $1.38 million, three-year federal grant.

During that first year, the district revamped its physical education curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade, buying the necessary equipment and tablets for its teachers; set up a series of workshops and guest speakers for the community; and introduced students to some new activities like snowshoeing.

“We’re trying to really think about creating lifelong fitness and what kinds of opportunities can we give them that they can take into the future,” Krueger said.

That’s translated into smaller teams for sports and the goal of getting a piece of equipment into every child’s hand, moves that make it harder for students to get through class without participating and getting their heart rates up, grant coordinator Robert Mecklenburg said.

It’s translated into a new outdoor adventures class being piloted at Algonquin-based Community Unit School District 300’s Jacobs High School next year, said Thomas Parisi, who serves as the district coordinator of physical education and health, a new position this year.

The district also is looking to add an athlete-focused strength and conditioning weights class plus dance, yoga and Pilates classes over the next several years.

District 200 also is exploring those options, which have been more and more popular across the country.

McHenry High School District 156 offers Fitness for Life and Fitness Walking classes plus two levels of dance classes. Some of Crystal Lake-based Community High School District 155 high schools offer Total Body Fitness and dance classes.

“Our job is to prepare students for the world,” Parisi said. “That means more of an emphasis on fitness concepts. That’s not to say you won’t see sports, but it’s more about fitness.”

Only 10 percent of adults use sports as their means of physical fitness, and so a wider variety of classes mean students are more likely to encounter an activity they can continue to use as an adult to stay healthy, Parisi said. The district also is applying for two grants in the hopes that they can buy heart-rate monitors, another tool students may encounter as adults.

“What you’re seeing is a changing of the guard,” Parisi said. “P.E. is not what it used to be. It takes time to implement a systematic change.”

He’d like to see what parents think three or so years down the line when more schools have adopted these new practices.

___

Source: The (Crystal Lake) Northwest Herald, https://bit.ly/1Bavwdz

___

Information from: The Northwest Herald, https://www.nwherald.com