By Emily Hagedorn
Enquirer contributor

Getting students on their feet and exercising during the school day is like a basketball shot released after the buzzer, say school administrators -- there's no time for it.

But they may be rethinking their game strategy next month if the General Assembly decides Kentucky elementary and middle school students must get 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous physical activity.

Physical education "should be a pretty important priority when you look at the rate of childhood obesity and diabetes," said the bill's sponsor, State Rep. Jon Draud, R-Crestview Hills.

The bill requires elementary schools to provide time for physical activity, which the physical education teacher would coordinate, by the 2006-2007 school year. Middle schools would have to comply by the next year.

Currently, most Kentucky elementary students receive 30 to 60 minutes of gym class per week.

The change won't cost anything, Draud said.

"The idea is to provide better health to youngsters," he said.

A need for more physical education isn't new; it's just difficult to sacrifice other subjects for it, said Lisa Resing, who teaches physical education at White's Tower Elementary School in Independence.

There isn't time for more physical education because it's not on state-mandated tests, said Mel Carroll, principal of Ockerman Middle School in Florence.

"We teach what we're tested on," Carroll said. "All of us recognize the benefits of physical education ... (but) the idea that you can put something into the curriculum without taking something out is a misnomer."

Draud has a different opinion: Health advantages outweigh the lessons lost.

"If you die, it doesn't make a difference if you can read well," he said.

Some schools have found ways around the conflict.

At White's Tower, Resing leads the school in stretches and exercises during the televised morning announcements.

Students at Connor Middle School in Hebron are encouraged to go to the gym or outside after lunch and play basketball or football, toss Frisbees or jump rope.

Fort Thomas's Highlands Middle School students can make use of Highland High School's synthetic football turf after lunch.

Stephens Elementary School in Burlington opens its gym after lunch to the fifth-graders. For every three miles of laps around the gym - walking, running or jogging - students earn a foot-shaped jewelry charm.

Marilyn Moore, Stephens' physical education teacher, says her classes support core academic classes.

"There's lots of math in games. With the heart and the blood and the respiratory system - that's science," Moore said. "We are reinforcing what's happening in the classroom."

Resing notes that physical education classes include nutrition, teamwork strategies, fitness concepts, health, safety skills - life skills.

"They think P.E. is just roll out the ball and play kickball," she said. "It teaches a child as a whole, not as a part."

Both the teachers and Draud recognize the need to give students a healthy foundation.

"This is a time when you teach them they have a choice. When they are 16 and overweight, they'll know they had a choice," Moore said. "If you can't teach them, how can they make good decisions?"