Isabel Orozco, 12, far right, and Noah Gaub, also 12 and next to Isabel, exercise with a parachute along with their seventh-grade classmates at Dodge Middle School. The school doesn't have physical-education teachers, but it offers 26 minutes of physical activity for the entire school every day

Mamta popat / arizona daily star

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Instead of spending an estimated $150,000 on new teachers to incorporate more physical education into her school's curriculum, Dodge Middle School's principal got creative.

What resulted is a daily physical activity period — P.A. for short — involving the entire school. The 26-minute program starts with series of stretches, then more than 400 children break into groups and participate in a variety of activities, from parachute to kick the can, even line- and swing-dancing.

"We all brainstormed games we used to play as kids," said Cathy Comstock, Dodge's principal of five years.

Dodge has never been a school with discipline problems, but since the start of the program Aug. 14, office referrals have dropped by 40 percent, especially for children with learning problems such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Comstock said.

Because almost all teachers participate in P.A., the only cost was $800 for equipment.

Kathy Carroll, a prevention specialist in comprehensive health education for the Tucson Unified School District, said the district has been trying to increase physical education in schools. That comes after cutbacks several years ago to make room for other programs such as driver's education in high schools, as well as an increased need to teach more academics to meet accountability standards in all schools.

But it's hard for elementary school teachers in particular to squeeze physical education into their days, Carroll said. Of TUSD's 74 elementary schools, only 18 have physical education, she said.

"When they have high-stakes testing, they don't have time to go outside," Carroll said. "They do the best they can — there's just so many hours of the day, and there are a lot of pressures on them to get their scores up."

Recent state and federal accountability standards such as AIMS — Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards — and the No Child Left Behind Act have pushed school emphasis from physical education to academics, said Mike Serres, president of the Parent Advisory Committee at Dodge.

"The amount of time spent in school is spent on academics, which isn't an awful thing, but what gets lost in the shuffle are things like physical education and arts," Serres said.

He said his 13-year-old daughter, Riley, looks forward to a different activity every week and recently came home raving about line-dancing.

"She had a blast," he said. "They do it in the hallway. It's fun and silly and they move around."

Though Dodge officials don't want to call their program a weight-loss routine, it comes amid a trend toward rising childhood-obesity numbers.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among children age 6 to 11, overweight prevalence increased from 11 percent to 19 percent from 1988-94 to 2003-2004. In children ages 12-19, it increased from 11 percent to 17 percent during the same time.

The P.A. program fills a void since some students get no exercise due to being involved in electives such as band that don't allow them to take P.E. Or they just don't have the time, said Donna Sanders, school counselor for Dodge.

"Some of our kids are riding the bus up to an hour-plus to get to school, so they're sitting, and they go right into class and they're sitting," she said. "It gives them a chance to pump up their adrenaline a little bit."

Luis Valenzuela, 14, an eighth-grader, said it's fun to get out of class and exercise, and it doesn't hurt academically, either.

"I have more stamina and I can actually sit through class," he said.

The program is structured in such a way that teachers who don't have an activity with students have a planning period with other teachers in their grade.

The period gives teachers a focused time to collaborate on improving student performance, said Joe Cuprak, an eighth-grade math teacher who has taught at Dodge for four years.

Andrea Kent, a seventh-grade math teacher, said the program also gives her a quick break to collect her thoughts before teaching for the rest of the day.

"It actually gets you up and out of your classroom," she said.

Luis Garcia, 13, another Dodge eighth-grader, said the P.A. program provides an opportunity to expend some of his energy — and he's noticed some other changes.

"I feel more alive," he said with a grin. "I feel like I walk like a soldier."