Charlotte School Teams with Jimmie Johnson
CHARLOTTE, NC — Daily physical activity can increase academic performance. Kids need to blow off some steam.
Through a grant and partnerships with private business, one Charlotte school now has a unique way to get kids active.
This is what PE and recess looks like at the Northwest School of the Arts in West Charlotte now. It used to be very different, with students walking around an empty field, or dodging delivery trucks in the bus parking lot.
“Up until now we really, this was an empty canvas out here, with nothing except a big field,” says Health and Physical Education teacher Neil Roberts.
The PE teachers and administration got together and decided to do something about it.
“They petitioned the Jimmie Johnson foundation, and the Championship Grant was awarded to us,” says Northwest Senior Principal Melody Sears. “They came out, and looked at our field, and they said ‘Hey, you’re right, they have nothing to do!'”
The school partnered with the Jimmie Johnson Foundation, the Lowe’s Toolbox for Education and Greendfield’s Outdoor Fitness to design and build this fitness trail.
“To be a physical educator and basically have a fitness center on our own campus, I’m like a kid in a candy shop right now,” says Roberts.
Northwest has students from grades six to twelve. Most are not required to take PE, and there are no sports teams. So this new fitness trail provides an invaluable resource, for the whole school community.
“When you do something that’s physically active, deliberately, with a purpose, and that is targeted toward health and education, it makes such a difference,” says Principal Sears.
“I can use it in my physical education classes,” says Roberts. “And regular student body can use it. Even the community can use when after school hours. ”
“One of the things that we have really believed in from the start is that we get better by having community engagement,” continues Sears. “This is going to fit right in.”
Northwest is a full magnet school. PE classes are not available for tenth through twelfth grade students, and there are no Physical Education elective classes.
Middle school students only have 22 days of physical education each year.
