Cathedral Catholic High School will continue to offer a physical education course online during this summer, but starting next school year,  a semester-long physical education class called Independent PE will be introduced as an added period reserved for off-campus physical activities, thus allowing students to earn required physical education credits outside of school.

“This [change] will allow those [students] short on credit to still take their regular academic classes, yet still get PE credit outside of class during the semester,” said Mr. Will Cunningham, who serves as PE teacher and online course moderator.

One semester of this new course will count for five physical education credits, provided that students are required to accumulate 20 credits for graduation. With the addition of Independent PE, students can complete half of their graduation requirement within one year by taking the course both semesters.

Self-motivated students who exercise on their own time are eligible to take Independent PE. Unlike the regular in-school, physical education course, this new class will not take up one of students’ seven courses; instead, it will be added as an eighth period to their schedules. Students will not meet in the gym for class since the course is completed outside of school hours.

“With the previous addition of the seventh period, we believed that students would have enough opportunities to complete their PE requirements,” Mrs. Ashley Bascom, the director of counseling, said. “But we also added many more electives to the curriculum since then, which counteracted our original goal.”

Acting as an eighth period, students from grades 9-12 still will have a full seven period schedule despite taking the class. However, students with an opening in their schedules may still be encouraged to take the regular course.

“Students are making a transcript commitment when signing up for either course, and they need to stay on top of their work to pass,” Mrs. Bascom said. “If a student has a rigorous class schedule and won’t have the time to work out after school, they should take PE over summer. For those [students] who can handle their class work and exercise, it is preferred they take PE during the semester.”

According to Mr. Cunningham, Independent PE is planned to span 12 of the 18 weeks within a semester. This time is double that of summer physical eduction course, which is only six weeks, but the semester course also will offer much more content than the summer course.

“Besides creating logs of their physical activity, students will be introduced to topics regarding health and they will take quizzes on such material,” Mr. Dave Silva, a CCHS counsellor, said.

Each course requires students to complete weekly work, not allowing  them time to slack off. However, for students who participate in sports outside of school or attend classes at their local gym, this flexible addition will allow them to gain graduation credit more easily.