Isabelle Chiu
Executive Sports Editor
Fitness and Nutrition, a new yearlong core class that combines Physical Education 9 and Health, is available for freshman this school year as an alternative to fulfill both Health and P.E. credits.
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District approved this course, along with 13 other courses, at its Feb. 13 meeting. The Fitness and Nutrition class is currently offered first, second and third period.
“So far, I’ve found the class interesting from my standpoint as a teacher because it is different,” Fitness and Nutrition teacher James Beaumont said. “After [teaching Health and P.E. separately] for so many years, it is nice to have something a little bit different [to teach] each day. I am enjoying the process of figuring how this is all going to work for this school year.”
In past years, Costa freshmen fulfilled both of their Health and Physical Education requirements separately by taking a semester-long Health course in addition to taking the two yearlong P.E. courses. Some choose to participate in a team sport instead of P.E.
“I took Fitness and Nutrition to get the health course out of the way, and since I didn’t do online health over the summer, I took the combined class during the year,” freshman Megan Shintaku said.
Only freshmen in team sports, sophomores and upperclassmen are allowed to enroll in semester-long Health classes. All other freshman must enroll in Fitness and Nutrition. The health component in Fitness and Nutrition is year long, and requires students to complete 15 volunteer hours each semester.
“The idea [behind creating the Fitness and Nutrition course] is to bring kids back from taking so much summer school,” Beaumont said. “There is less participation in certain departments, and for equity around the school there shouldn’t be [so much] summer school [offered] to the point of ruining a department.”
Offering Fitness and Nutrition has not led to a reduced number of students taking a semester-long Health Classes this school year nor during summer school this year, Beaumont said. Offering this class will not affect team sport participation.
“While it will be an incentive to do P.E. and Health together, the desire to play team sports is huge,” Beaumont said. “We have 34 sports at Mira Costa; there is more participation than ever.”
Mira Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale proposed the year-long course that combined both Health and Physical Education. He was inspired by Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, California, which also offers a combined P.E. and Health course.
“The stand-alone Health class has become problematic,” Dale said. “Athletes are all trying to take it over the summer, and people that have to take it on campus have to find a class to match it with.”
Fitness and Nutrition currently does not have a set number of days dedicated to P.E. and Health. The students have Run Day once a week and either spend the rest of the week in the classroom or participating in physical activity.
“On one hand, it’s a work in progress because we’re not sure how it’s all going to work,” Beaumont said. “We need to get enough P.E. and Health in. So far it’s been something different everyday [with] our run days, days in the pool, days in the weight room, or days in the classroom.”
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