ValleyView200712Winter - Hopewell Valley Regional School District

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THE VALLEY VIEW W INTER 2007
Gyms, Fields No Longer Free
U
sers of district-owned gymnasiums and fields began
paying rent for the first time in January, as district
officials continue to explore non-tax revenue sources
to help support the school system’s budget.
Beginning Jan. 1, non-profit organizations using
the district’s fields, gymnasiums, tennis courts and classrooms are
paying hourly rates ranging from $10 to $50, depending on the
day.The highest rates will be charged on Sunday, when the cost
of renting a gym, classroom or parking lot, reaches $50 an hour.
Field rental is $15 per hour, regardless of the day of the week.
Fees cover the cost of custodial service, utilities and normal
wear and tear. Until now, the district has historically secured
nothing more than proof of insurance from users of its facilities.
In January the Board approved a grant agreement with the
Hopewell Basketball League, locking in the rental rate for league
members in exchange for lump-sum payments dedicated for facility
upgrades. Under the agreement, the gymnasium at Bear
Tavern Elementary School will get an air-conditioning system.
The league will pay $30,000 for the first 1,000 hours and regular
rates, which range between $25 and $50, after that. ■
Timberlane 8th graders Jeff Mulford, Madison Schreiber and
Kari Lang (left to right) get an aerobic workout in DDR during a
recent wellness class.
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em …
I
f flexibility is in the toolkit of the effective teacher, then
chalk another one up for the wellness teachers at
Timberlane Middle School.
Dance Dance Revolution, a popular and interactive
computer game that challenges players to match rhythm
and choreography while following onscreen arrows for dance steps,
is part of the cardioaerobic options available to students in wellness
classes.
Wellness teacher Candace Gore, who first saw the game last spring
in a boardwalk arcade, helped pitch it as an addition to the curriculum,
noting its obvious cardio benefits, not to mention its high fun factor.
“Any time you can show them activity is fun, they’re going to
want to continue it,” says Gore.“Our goal is to get students to participate
in daily physical activity voluntarily.There’s a ton of data out
there that shows the participation of young girls, in particular,
declines big-time once they get to high school.”
Set to a soundtrack with a wide selection of contemporary dance
music, DDR plays on a regular TV monitor and players go through
their steps on a specially marked foam floor pad. Pads are connected
to a PlayStation console.Timberlane has two interactive pads, allowing
two students to play at a time, and another dozen non-interactive
pads, allowing 14 students in all to follow along.
Although DDR is offered as an optional activity, at the same
time as ping pong, Gore says the pads are never empty long enough
to get cold.“The kids love it.”
For teachers like Gore, who believe that the seeds for physical
activity in adulthood are planted in childhood and are best nurtured
when they result in voluntary exercise, DDR is a perfect fit in the
curriculum.
“Gone are the days that you put them in line and march them
around a gym,” says Gore.“It may be good for them, but so is castor
oil.” ■
Everybody is Doing It (Cont. from page 1)
Perkins says perceptions are shaped by three influences – culture
(entertainment,advertising,news,and the media),social psychology (we
are drawn to remember and repeat stories of extreme,weird events) and
psychology (we interpret and make sense of things based on our understanding
of the context of the situation.)
Vice principal Kat D’Ambra, who is coordinating the project in
Hopewell Valley, says it is important for parents and educators to challenge
the “everybody is doing it” attitude by training youth to ask
themselves the right questions.
❖ How do you know that
❖ Can you explain the context of the story
❖ What were other people doing
❖ Do you believe this story represents what everyone does/believes to be
acceptable
❖ What do you think about the behavior
“We rarely hear stories about the young people who don’t engage
in risky behaviors,” says D’Ambra.“The stories we do hear are of the
extreme behaviors and usually with limited contextual understanding,
but they are the stories that create misperception about the attitudes and
behaviors of the majority of students. This is the creation of the everybody-is-doing-it
myth upon which young people are norming their
own behaviors.
“We need to debunk the mythology.”
Data collection for the norming project at CHS began in
November, when 651 students were surveyed on their attitudes about
tobacco, alcohol and drugs.At 53% of the student body, the size of the
sampling easily qualified as representative. By contrast,TV’s Nielsen ratings,
which influence billions of dollars of advertising spending, are collected
on nearly 10,000 of the nation’s 105.5 million households.
Using the survey results, a student-designed, multi-media marketing
campaign, will be launched in the next month.The first target is
parents.
“This is about how to have an intelligent, respectful conversation
with young people about how they make choices,” said D’Ambra. ■