This coming year, thanks to a federal grant award, CHS students will have access to industrial treadmills, elliptical machines and an automatic bicycle that monitors blood pressure and heart rate to adjust resistance instead of the 25-year-old equipment they'd been using.

"We needed to bring physical education into the 21st century," said Judy LoBianco, Supervisor of Health, Physical Education and Nursing Services for the district, who solicited input from teachers to gauge what was most desirable and mapped out how the funds she requested would be used over three years. The grant has a heavy focus on professional development and provides for more teachers attending regional and national conferences, but it also extends to replacing equipment like jump ropes and beach balls.

The district was awarded $1.25 million, and $476,000 for the first year is guaranteed. (The funding is provided by the Department of Education’s Carol M. White Physical Education Program, founded in 2001 to address childhood obesity, and the rest will be given if it's available.) In the first year the CHS fitness room (which will be moved from the C-wing to the former weight room in the D-wing) is the focus, but the district will also purchase HOPSports systems that utilize DVR technology to offer 100 different fitness programs for the two middle schools and the South Mountain YMCA.

LoBianco also plans to expand the Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) program, which started as a grant-funded pilot at Jefferson School two years ago, to an additional elementary school each year. Through the program, all school personnel—from teachers to administrators to cafeteria workers—are engaged in promoting physical activity and healthy food choices. (She gave the example of students being taught to differentiate between good, okay and bad food choices with the words "go", "slow" and "whoa".)

In addition, the district will purchase camcorders and tripods to help teachers assess students' motor patterns, as well as pocket PCs. There will also be physical education teacher trainings, starting with a session on Sept. 6, the day before students return to school.

"The grant program requires that you integrate technology, meaningful assessment, promote fitness and professional development," said LoBianco, who said she was disappointed when the district didn't win the grant when it first applied in 2006, but this year she got everything she asked for.

In the second year of the grant, the district would buy pedometers for grades three to 12, which would be "issued like a math book," LoBianco said, and software to work with the camcorders that would allow physical education teachers to slow down footage into freeze frames to allow for analysis of students' mastery of skills like skipping, kicking a soccer ball, or dribbling a basketball. The hope is that teachers would be able to provide better feedback to parents—perhaps e-mailing voiceover commentary with video footage of their children—telling them to practice with a child who's shifting his weight improperly, for instance. Laptops would also be purchased for every physical education teacher.

The final year focuses on Columbia's Project Adventure, one of the high school's most popular gym courses that includes activities like trust falls and the zip line, which require students to work together to ensure each other's safety. The allocation includes $150,000 for equipment improvements, including the construction of a four-wall construction tower in the field adjoining the school.

LoBianco said the district is hiring a full-time grant manager whose responsibilities will include speaking to vendors about bids and overseeing purchase orders, as well as a grant evaluator tasked with ensuring that the district abides by the Department of Education's guidelines.