A Study in Exercise

The Spanish teacher at St. Genevieve High School has lost 20 pounds dancing salsa, merengue and tango. The religion teacher has firmed up playing flag football and the English teacher has improved her cardiovascular conditioning by doing aerobics to loud music.

The school’s 300 students are getting in shape along with their teachers by participating in a fitness program implemented by Principal Dan Horn to fight child and adult obesity.

“Now my whole body is toned, especially my arms,” said Ronalyn Rullamas, a junior who takes the weight training class.

Three times a week, at 2:15 p.m., the school is transformed into a fitness camp with everyone on campus participating in some sort of physical activity, including yoga, walking, running, basketball, soccer and dancing.

Horn, an avid runner, started the fitness period after reading numerous articles about childhood obesity during his first year as principal in 1999.

An estimated 10% to 15% of American children are seriously overweight, a rate that has nearly doubled in the past two decades, according to federal statistics. As many as 25% are at risk for obesity and many already show such biochemical changes as elevated cholesterol and blood pressure that are precursors to obesity-linked illnesses.

A study released last year by the state Department of Health Services revealed that nearly one third of 1,200 12- to 17-year-olds surveyed were overweight and fewer than one in three got the recommended hour of daily physical activity.

So Horn extended the school day, adding a seventh period three times a week, in an effort to get everyone on campus to work out.

“I wanted to develop a program that included every student in the school and I figured there would be no better way than for them to see their Spanish and English teacher right there along with them exercising.”

Teachers Sign Up for Activities

Horn proposed the plan to the school’s 25 teachers, asking them to sign up for the activity of their choice. Gone are the traditional Catholic school uniforms, skirts and collared shirts for girls and slacks and collared shirts for boys.

On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, students and faculty now wear navy blue sweatsuits that allow them to immediately participate in their fitness class when the afternoon bell rings.

“At any other school the assistant principal would be in a shirt, tie and jacket,” said Assistant Principal Patrick Palmeter, clad in his sweatsuit and sneakers.

Palmeter, who also teaches physics at St. Genevieve, plays basketball with about 20 students as part of the fitness program.

Sister Mary Murphy, the school’s librarian, signed up to teach yoga, something she learned from years of meditation at spiritual retreats.

“But I have Western legs, so I can’t get into some positions,” she joked.

Alma Mercado, the Spanish teacher who shed 20 pounds, said if exercise weren’t part of her work day, she’d never do it.

“Who has the time?” she asked. “I love it. I’m in better shape now and I feel great. It’s great to move around instead of sitting in a chair.”

Mercado and fellow Spanish teacher Jose Gil teach the dance class in the school’s language lab. Gil has also trimmed down, swaying his hips to Colombian cumbias and Cuban salsa.

So has Jonathan Moretti, a 16-year-old junior, who signed up for the class because he wanted to learn to dance.

“I used to go home and play video games,” he said. “This is fun and it’s good exercise.”

The benefits aren’t just physical, some parents say. Susan Aylsworth believes the fitness program has helped her son, Ryan, a 10th-grader, in other ways.

“I notice my child’s self-esteem is like a blooming flower,” Aylsworth said.