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New law requires one semester of P.E. in grades 6-8

Jasmina Meyer, Highlands Today

Sixth grader Fabian Rodriguez runs around the track on Monday as part of the "Focus on Fitness" program at Avon Park Middle School.

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By MARC VALERO

Highlands Today

Published: November 10, 2009

AVON PARK - The competition in the Avon Park Middle School Gymnasium is on the line as Dontae Pinckney steps up to the basketball free through line, bounces the ball a couple of times and shoots.

The ball hits the front of the rim.

"Bend your knees," coach Julie Tiger advises the sixth-grader.

The second shot falls short of the rim.

"The legs are your power," Tiger says.

On his next three shots, Pinckney hits the rim, nearly sinks a shot, but it rims out and then finally makes a free throw on his last shot.

Pinckney leaves the free throw circle with a smile on his face.

Starting this school year, Senate Bill 610 requires students to have one semester of physical education (the equivalent of one class period per day) in grades six through eight.

The "focus is on fitness," Tiger said. She and her fellow Avon Park Middle coaches, Robert Jarvis and Leland Elder, try to be creative to stress that students need to do whatever they can to be fit for the rest of their lives.

About a dozen students took part in this free throw qualifying round of what Tiger calls the Tiger Olympics, which will includes 11 events during the semester.

"It provides the children with an opportunity to be the best they can be," Tiger said.

Also, it's Mile Monday so the other students, mostly sixth-graders in this sixth-period class, are out walking/running a mile on the school's dirt track.

"They start running and then they slow it down," Tiger said. "When they get timed - they run.

"This is to get their cardiovascular system moving; this is the build up; at the end of the quarter we will time them."

Back in the gym, Destiny Belle takes her turn at the free throw line.

"Nice and soft, floating," Tiger advises.

After her turn, Bell said she stays active after school playing basketball and skateboarding with a neighbor around her age.

Her previous running time for the mile was around 12:42, she said.

Tiger said the students are taught to make good food choices and participate in a weight program in the fitness center.

With students changing clothes at the beginning and end of the 42-minute period, there is no time to waste.

"In these 30 minutes that we get them ... we jam a lot in there," Tiger said. "This is the first time that we are doing this rule change, so I'm assuming that come January we are going to see more kids come in.

"We are hoping we get every kid at some point to give them the information they need to survive life."

But, students who need remedial classes may not have room in their schedule for physical education.

Avon Park Middle Principal Katina Kramer said some students in remedial classes also need to get some exercise, but there is no extra time.

Lake Placid Middle School Principal Derrel Bryan said "we try to make P.E. a priority and so we try to schedule every student unless there is something unusual in their schedule which might prohibit it."

A student may not have room in their schedule if they have remedial reading or remedial reading and math, but that's a small number of students, he noted.

The bill also requires 150 minutes of physical education each week for students in kindergarten through grade five so that on any day during which physical education instruction is conducted there are at least 30 consecutive minutes per day.

Highlands Today reporter Marc Valero can be reached at 386-5826 or mvalero@highlandstoday.com

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