As the new school year started, changes were implemented at Yutan High School to keep students active. The new changes included a graduation requirement of 20 hours, or four semesters, of physical education classes to graduate.
“Last year, we had a Rule 10 audit, which goes through regulations and procedures for accreditation of schools,” principal Stefanie Novotny said. “And what we noticed in there was that for high schools, you have to have 20 hours of PE or 20 credits for PE.”
Students previously were required to take 10 hours, which was fulfilled with freshman-level PE and health. Now they need to add another full year of physical education to graduate. Because of this change, the administration decided to add a Lifetime Fitness class for students to take as an alternative to Weights, which was the only other upper-level PE class offered.
“I think that’s a fun one, and I hope that that grows because there are some people who don’t want to lift weights, and you can just play pickleball, or you can do ping pong or bowling,” school counselor Missy Chvatal said.
Due to the new class, some teachers had to take on more PE classes and the students were offered fewer sections of Weights.
“We have two more Lifetime Fitness classes, so I picked those up, and then this year we offered fewer Weights. Last year we had five, and this year I only have three,” PE teacher Jesse Gardner said.
For seniors who had previously only taken the freshman level, this meant adding a PE class to their schedule, which wasn’t a problem for some.
“They (the new requirements) haven’t really affected me because I’ve already been taking Weights in my sophomore and junior years as well, so I wouldn’t have needed to take another class,” senior Maddox Wentworth said.
While it wasn’t a problem for Wentworth, other seniors were frustrated to lose the opportunity for more academic credit.
“The new PE requirements disrupted my schedule. I think taking the class now is fine, but I would rather be filling my time with something more academically fulfilling,” senior Maddie Fenn said.
Even if the students have mixed feelings about the new requirements, they are finding benefits in taking the new class that was offered to them.
“I get to do new things like shuffleboard and four square, and you usually don’t do those things in a PE class,” sophomore Jada Reed said. “My favorite things were probably shuffleboard and badminton that we’ve done so far this year.”
While the changes may take some getting used to, there are many benefits to taking another year of PE in high school.
“I think the science is pretty clear that kids are active, exercising daily and doing a variety of activities that make them healthier, which helps them do better in all the other classes,” Gardner said.
