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Leading the pack on fitness

By TOM MARSHALL
Published December 17, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Maurice Rivenbark ] Carrying a card that logs her miles, Molly Hanley, a 6-year-old first grader as Chocachatti Elementary in Brooksville, runs Thursday during a walk-run competition at the school.

BROOKSVILLE - If you want to ask a first-grader a question during physical education class at Chocachatti Elementary School, there's only one way to do it: run.

Or at least walk pretty briskly.

That was how a visiting reporter found himself walk-running three laps recently, trying to find out what was making them go round and round the school track in the name of fitness.

"My mom told me it keeps on pumping our blood," suggested 7-year-old Kaitlyn Price as she puffed past.

"It's easy," said Mikayla Beers, 7. "Except for the part when our legs get tired."

For red-faced leader of the pack Jonathan Helm, 6, it was all about that thrill of victory.

"I sometimes like to stampede people," he said, rocketing through a shrieking pack of girls. "I go in between them. Watch!"

It's not happening at every school in Hernando County, where district officials report a wide variation in the amount of P.E. and exercise students receive at the elementary level.

But students are racking up the miles at Chocachatti. In fact, when you add up the entire school's miles, they're more than halfway to Baghdad.

For the third year now, students are earning little plastic "feet" and certificates for every 5 miles they run. At 25 miles, they get a place on the Wall of Fame.

And every mile, more than 4,000 of them so far, extends a string on a map stretching the more than 6,000 miles from Brooksville to Iraq. Call it a little geography lesson, or a gesture to support the troops, said physical education teacher Maggie McCarter.

There's been a lot of worry nationally about lazy, overweight children, and how to roust them from the couch for some good, old-fashioned exercise.

But sloth is the least of McCarter's worries.

"The problem isn't getting kids out there; it's getting them to stop," she said. "What we were surprised about is how well the kids responded: 'Yesss, we're running!' "

Last year the Florida Department of Education reported that just 33 percent of elementary schools statewide provided a minimum of 30 to 85 minutes of P.E. per week. That's far less than the American Heart Association recommendation of 150 minutes per week at the elementary level, with at least 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise.

"I used to see my kids once every six days," said P.E. teacher Kevin Seroski, who came to the district from Broward County.

At Chocachatti, students in kindergarten through second grade get five 30-minute periods of P.E. per week, with one day devoted to health and counseling issues. It's the same rotation in third through fifth grades except during the school's Micro Society activity, when they have three periods per week.

The P.E. teachers also run daily recess and organize games to keep students active, McCarter said.

Some schools in Hernando County match that pace, while others struggle with space limitations or overcrowding.

Students at Brooksville Elementary have 30 minutes of P.E. every day, while Deltona students get two 35-minute periods every seven days, said curriculum coordinator Elaine Wooten.

Over at J.D. Floyd Elementary, each of the school's 1,428 students gets five 35-minute P.E. classes every nine weeks. That comes out to about 20 periods of physical education per year, Wooten said.

That's less than the district policy guidelines, which call for at least 45 days of P.E. instruction per year.

But Floyd's instruction is supplemented by recess and the American Heart Association's Jump Rope For Heart program, said coach Tammy Creek, one of three P.E. teachers at the school.

The school is cramped for space, but teachers have set up a path to run laps around the playground, and there's some field space for games.

"We've had such a huge influx of kids, and we just don't have enough teachers to offer more," Creek said. "Having P.E. every day, obviously, would be a dream come true. But that's not happening."

Tom Marshall can be reached at tmarshall@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1431.

[Last modified December 16, 2006, 20:41:50]