WEST FORK — This year, students in some area schools will have the opportunity to bicycle, go in-line skating and learn kayaking during their physical education classes.
On Friday morning, teachers from six schools - Elkins, Farmington, Lincoln, Pea Ridge, Prairie Grove and West Fork - gathered at the Boston Mountain Educational Cooperative for some training on how to use the equipment. The cooperative received a $432,000 Physical Education Program grant from the U.S. Department of Education to buy new equipment for the districts' P.E. programs.
Brett Stone, a former Elkins teacher who helped write the grant, said the $432,000 will be spread over three years, and for the first year, they were allocated $192,747. Stone now works as an assistant professor of health and physical education at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, but he was in West Fork to help oversee the training.
Some of the program equipment purchased for the schools included Nintendo Wii Fit programs, projectors and rock walls for the individual schools.
"They love these rock walls," Lincoln Elementary School P.E. teacher Jim Sposato said.
They purchased 50 sets of in-line skates, 45 bicycles and 45 heart rate monitors that will be shared on a rotating basis.
Also, the grant is being used to purchase some kayaks, which will be used in the P.E. programs.
West Fork Elementary School P.E. teacher Tiffany Redlarczyk said she was the first one to be able to use the in-line skates and they have been a big hit with the students.
"The kids are asking their parents to get them Rollerblades for Christmas now," she said.
Elkins P.E. teacher John Bowman said the kayaking and water safety lessons should be a good fit for students who live in a rural district like Elkins.
"There are so many kids that play in the water, play in rivers," he said.
Redlarczyk said she will probably have some kayak lessons on dry ground and then she would like to take them to the White River sometime this spring.
News, Pages 3 on 09/26/2009