Dodging gym class

When Ronni Huerta attended high school in the 1980s, she usually spent more than two hours every day training, for volleyball, basketball, softball or track.

With so much of her time dedicated to those sports, Huerta didn't think it made sense to spend part of the school day playing dodgeball, pickleball or badminton.

She opted out of physical education class at Meriden-Cleghorn High School in northwest Iowa and took electives such as computer programming, accounting and journalism to prepare for college.

“Because I was so active in sports, it worked out well for me,” said Huerta, now Omaha South High's athletic director. “It's not that I didn't want to take gym class, but I felt, as a four-sport athlete, that I could make better use of that time.”

With Huerta's experience as a model, the Omaha Public Schools will introduce a program this school year that allows student athletes at Omaha Northwest High School to opt out of their required physical education classes. Student athletes at all seven OPS high schools eventually could take the option, if all goes well.

National physical education advocates have criticized similar initiatives, which are rare in Nebraska, partly because of the nation's obesity rate. But OPS officials say the opt-out could allow kids who are active in sports to take more classes that match their interests or career goals.

For any teen who has ever dreaded completing a grueling gym class run, getting a floor burn or making an athletic blunder in front of peers, the thought of ditching gym class might seem like a dream come true.

But by no means is OPS experimenting with some sort of get-out-of-PE-free card, said Peg Naylon, the district's coordinator of physical education and athletics.

At OPS high schools, students must take four semesters of physical education to graduate. Under the pilot program, each full season of participation in a sport would exempt the student from one semester of gym class.

The option is limited to students in school-sponsored sports. Students still will be required to earn 49 credits to graduate, and participation in a sport will not earn them credit.

A student must fill out a form and get signatures from a parent or guardian, a coach and a counselor. The application is subject to final approval by the school administration.

Students who are granted the waiver can take elective courses, including Advanced Placement or honors classes, and that course will factor into the granting of a waiver.

“This doesn't eliminate any PE options for kids — those certainly are still going to be available to them,” said Huerta, who previously taught physical education. “This just gives kids who are already active in sports an additional opportunity to take some classes that aren't physical-activity based.”

But with obesity and sedentary lifestyles becoming more problematic in the United States, some national groups frown upon any initiative allowing high school students to avoid physical education.

A 2008 report released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that only one state, Colorado, had an obesity rate below 20 percent.

The centers found that obesity in America has increased dramatically during the past two decades, and the report listed 27 percent of Nebraskans as being obese — more than double the state's rate in 1988.

In 2006, the National Association for Sport & Physical Education released a position paper stating that no waivers or exemptions should be permitted.

Physical education should be an integral component of a school's curriculum, said Steve Jefferies, the association's president.

The classes help kids create lifelong healthy habits, and they introduce students to a variety of activities that can keep them fit long after they've stopped playing organized sports.

Competitive and skill-specific activities such as football, basketball, volleyball or cheerleading are no substitute for gym classes designed to promote health-related fitness and positive attitudes toward physical activity, according to the association.

While playing a sport demands much from an athlete, the organization said those activities have goals that are different from physical education and don't necessarily promote a healthy lifestyle into adulthood.

“The idea maybe in the past was that (PE) was just a break from classes or a chance for kids just to improve their athletic skills,” Jefferies said. “But we're trying to prepare students for a lifetime of physical activity. Obviously as a society we're not doing very well, given the health data, and it's only getting worse.”

In the Lincoln, Bellevue and Millard school districts, high school students must take four semesters of gym classes, regardless of their sports participation. Neither Omaha Creighton Prep nor Omaha Marian High School offers PE opt-outs; a Marian spokeswoman said it's under discussion at the school.

The Nebraska Department of Education requires that public high schools offer two years of physical education, but it's up to districts to develop their curriculums. OPS asked the department for permission to create the waiver.

Iowa Department of Education policy specifically allows high schools to offer students an opt-out.

Westside High School has offered an opt-out for more than a decade. Freshmen are required to take a year of physical education, including one semester focused on healthy living, said Assistant Principal Jeff Wagner. Sophomores can opt out while they're involved in an activity, though they don't get credit for such participation.

Kate Bowling, who will be a Westside junior, took advantage of the option last year while playing varsity basketball and softball. Bowling enrolled in a weight training class before and after basketball season. But during the months she played basketball, she took a free period in place of the PE class so she could study for other subjects.

“I don't think it's an option that people really go crazy for, but it was a big help for me,” said Bowling, who aspires to be a lawyer. “You're still being active by practicing and playing basketball every day, but you also get that extra time to study.”

During the 2008-09 school year, 30 of 468 sophomores received the waiver. Wagner said the option actually has decreased in popularity as the school has beefed up its physical education offerings.

“I think students feel PE may be more viable today than it was when they just threw out a ball and let them play,” Wagner said.

For sure, the courses taken by today's high school students often do not resemble the classes their parents remember.

During the past decade, most metro-area high schools have diversified their curriculum.

At Westside, students can take classes in lifeguarding, exercise science, sports officiating and sports medicine. Millard students can take dance, cross-training, aerobics or lifeguarding.

Those behind the OPS initiative said it's best to give parents and students even more choices. School board President Sandra Jensen said she has a hunch the Northwest program will prove exactly that.

“It's about giving students more options to get college-ready,” she said, “while still making sure not to dilute the rigor that goes into physical education.”

Contact the writer:

444-1207, chad.purcell@owh.com

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