The Scituate Public Schools has won the Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) grant sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. The two-year grant will provide the district close to $738,000 over a two-year period to strengthen physical education programming in the district ($472,283 in the first year and $265,696 in the second year). The bulk of the funds will go toward the purchase of equipment and supplies to enhance the physical education curriculum at all six schools in the district. No personnel will be hired with funds from the grant.
The major goals for the grant include: (1) implementing what is known as “New Physical Education” a curriculum that promotes lifelong wellness for all students; (2) implementing adventure equipment, curriculum and materials to continue the district’s implementation of Project Adventure, a curriculum that emphasizes the role of team building in becoming physically fit; and (3) utilizing technology to help students be aware of their personal fitness goals, including pedometers for all Scituate students and faculty, as well as heart rate monitors and software programs to track progress. While the grant covers a brief two-year period, the funds from the grant will be spent entirely on equipment, supplies and professional development, so they will have a life-span well beyond the grant cycle itself.
The Scituate PEP grant will allow the school district to strengthen existing partnerships with community based organizations such as Scituate Town Recreation and the South Shore YMCA. Funds from the grant will allow the district to offer increased offerings for both before and after school activities for Scituate students. These activities will seek to engage students through new opportunities such as units on snow-shoeing in the winter time, and units on inline skating to take advantage of our existing infrastructure such as the skate park on the campus of Scituate High School. Extensive training and professional development will be provided to Scituate teachers as well as aides and other staff members. The grant includes funds to compensate food services staff to improve the quality of cafeteria offerings are also included in this budget line.
Scituate’s PEP grant will benefit students and teachers at all levels in Scituate. Exciting new fitness and wellness programs will be conducted on a rotating basis at all levels in the district in conjunction with Town Recreation and PTO activities. The programs will feature units on yoga and gymnastics, along with other topics that will be designed to complement our physical education and wellness curriculum. At the elementary level, funds from grant will enable the district to purchase horizontal traverse walls for all four schools as well as various outdoor adventure programming elements. Wii Fit systems will be purchased for each elementary school, along with tumbling mats and appropriate storage systems. Finally, at the elementary level, Scituate’s PEP grant will fund Peaceful Playgrounds (a series of inclusive, outdoor kits for recess and playground activities) to provide support in our implementation of our new anti-bullying plan.
At the middle school level, Dance-Dance Revolution (DDR) will be added to the physical education curriculum as a unit to allow the school to cover the dance component of the Fine Arts Curriculum Frameworks in a cohesive way for the first time. Gates Intermediate School will also receive funds to install low, outdoor elements as well as a 40-foot horizontal traverse wall. The middle school will receive a mobile fitness lab, a cart that can be quickly unpacked to set up stations for resistance and cardiovascular training.
Scituate High School will receive significant fitness equipment through the grant to update all cardiovascular equipment in the Coby Cutler Fitness Center. All cardiovascular equipment in the Coby Cutler fitness center will be replaced with commercial-grade cardiovascular equipment, including treadmills, elliptical machines, stairclimbers, rowing machines, and an adaptive motion trainer. The existing cardiovascular equipment in the Coby Cutler fitness center will be moved to Gates Intermediate School to set up a new fitness center for middle school students and faculty. The Cutler family has been notified about the district’s receipt of a PEP grant, and the Cutlers have expressed their enthusiasm for this opportunity to strengthen and re-commit to their vision for the center. The high school will also receive funds for adventure programming high indoor elements to complement the existing program which was first installed as a part of the district’s 2007 curriculum override.
The goal of the Carol M. White Physical Education grant is to enable school districts to expand or enhance physical education programs that help students in kindergarten through 12th grade meet their state standards for physical education. The priority for successful grant applications is that a program that will address its state’s physical education standards and develop, expand, or improve its physical education program for students kindergarten through grade 12 by undertaking instruction in healthy eating habits and good nutrition and at one of the authorized physical fitness activities. In announcing the winners of the 2010, the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools of the United States Department of Education noted that all winning grants, including the Scituate grant, had met the grant’s requirement of encouraging the development of lifelong healthy habits, improving nutrition and physical education programming and policies in schools and communities to prevent obesity and to decrease the number of children who are overweight or obese.
Additional information on the grant will be presented at the October 18, 2010 meeting of the Scituate School Committee. A PEP Grant Advisory Council will be formed to oversee the implementation of the grant, with membership open to all interested community members. Additional information on the PEP Grant Advisory Council will be provided at the Oct. 18th School Committee Meeting.
For additional information please contact:
James Kelleher
Assistant Superintendent
(781) 545-8759 x320
Greg Ranieri
Department Chair for Coordinated Wellness
(781) 545-8759 x401
