Gaffney Lane Elementary School uses incentives such as "Run the Capitols" to engage students in fitness

10/08/03

OREGON CITY S ix times during lunch Tuesday, the doors banged open at Gaffney Lane Elementary School as charged-up groups of students stormed out of the building for recess.

Instead of heading to the slides or jungle gyms, most took off running around a dirt track that circles the playing fields. A half-mile later, they walked, jogged or sprinted across a finish line, where parent volunteers punched cards to record the distance covered.

"I want to run just one more lap," pleaded a sweaty Noah Riggen, 6.

"I'm just waiting until I get my strength back," responded 7-year-old Nathan Shannan.

The boys, both first-graders, are in an understandable hurry. Together with their classmates, they have roughly 16,000 miles to run before spring. That's the distance of a route between the capitals of all 50 states plus three Canadian provinces.

Mileage club's "Run the Capitols" is the latest invention of George Musser, Gaffney Lane's physical education teacher. Because of budget cuts, he is the only physical education teacher in the Oregon City School District.

With the support of Principal Sandy Virnig and with plenty of help from teachers and volunteers, Musser has made physical fitness a prime goal at the 685-student K-6 school. In addition to the mileage club and his regular P.E. classes, he also runs the popular noon leagues, an intramural program that gives students a chance to play organized sports, such as football, during recess.

Virnig said the school's efforts to get kids involved with physical activity is paying off in countless ways. It is part of an effort to help stem the rising tide of childhood obesity, where nationally an estimated 15 percent of children ages 6 to 11 are overweight -- a threefold increase from 30 years ago, according to figures from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Referrals for behavioral problems at the school are down about 50 percent since the noon-leagues program blossomed last year, Virnig said.

Having more outlets for students' energy also may be allowing them to focus better in the classroom. Test scores are up across the board.

The percentage of Gaffney Lane's third-graders who meet state standards in reading rose from 84 percent in 2002 to 97 percent in 2003. During the same period, the percentage who meet math standards rose from 79 percent to 96 percent.

Virnig said devoting Musser's position to physical education comes at a price. It means each classroom teacher has roughly two more students, with some classes having 35 students, she said.

"We did revisit the idea of a P.E. teacher this year," Virnig said. "Do you really want more students per class? But what we decided is that kids learn so much. They're not only getting physical activity, they're also learning about sportsmanship and the skills to play games like football or basketball."

It's not hard to pick out Musser on Gaffney Lane's playing fields. He's the tall man amid a sea of little athletes who also happens to be wearing headgear out of Dr. Seuss' "Cat in the Hat." As students circle the playing field, he deals with problems such scraped knees and unauthorized petting of the neighborhood dog.

"Kids come out of classrooms with all that hyper-whatever, and here it just melts away," Musser said. "They can go inside, and they're good to go."

One fan of what's happening at Gaffney Lane is Roger Cone, a member of the Oregon City School Board who's also director of the Center for the Study of Weight Regulation and Associated Disorders at Oregon Health & Science University.

"As a scientist who has worked in the area of weight regulation for many years, I am strongly in support of restoring trained physical education specialists to all of the elementary schools," he said. "We all know kids need to run around if they're going to be able to think clearly.

"It's good for health, and it's also good for education." Tom Quinn: 503-294-5918; thomasquinn@news.oregonian.com