A Fitness Revolution at East Providence High School

It was typical busy day at . But tucked inside the beehive of activity, about 20 boys and girls worked out on machines. The atmosphere was relaxed, with lots of talking and music playing in the background. But there was little, if any, standing around.

Freshman Felicia Meneses and sophomore Rachel Nallen were winded after taking turns on the popular Ab-Solo machine, which helps strengthen and develop abdominal muscles. Other students worked out on a variety of machines including step trainers, weight machines, spinner bikes, strength-resistance machines and free weights.

Sophomore Joseph Barcellos, who plays football, grinned after finishing a circuit on various machines. 

“Before, I just used the Ab-Solo machine,” he said. “Now there are a lot more machines and treadmills and bikes in the other room. Plus, I love gym anyway. It’s not the same thing every day.”

Certainly, this not the gym class of 25 years or even ten years ago. Looking like a fitness center you’d see at a mall or in a shopping plaza, East Providence High School’s Health and Wellness Center was designed to look that way for physical education classes at the school.

In this setting and in three other rooms being transformed into fitness areas, boys and girls, scholars and athletes and non-athletes of all sizes, shapes and physical and intellectual abilities are being placed on more equal ground than ever before.

East Providence does not claim to be the first school system in the state or elsewhere to climb on the fitness bandwagon. But few schools can claim to outperform this school in garnering schoolwide and community support for its new philosophy in physical education classes: “Fitness First” and “Fit for Life.”

“This is truly a community effort,” said John Gendron, who heads East Providence High School’s Department Health and Physical Education and led the initiative. “Everyone was involved. This is the future of physical education.”

The project began about three years ago, when “we started having a conversation about having a fitness component in physical education. We wanted fitness to take a more prominent role,” Gendron said.

It didn’t take long, Gendron said, before school administrators, Principal Janet Sheehan, Athletic Director Paul Amaral and his 13-member Health and PE staff, along with many community leaders and businesses, agree to pitch in and make the new focus a reality.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Carolyn Caswell, a former East Providence High School principal, researched available space and allowed Gendron and others to convert the school’s shop into main Health and Wellness Center, Gendron said. Students from the Career Technical Center next door helped construct the new room.

Getting the fitness ball rolling was state Sen. Frank DeVall of District 18, a former educator in East Providence.

“He helped us write a grant through the state to obtain $12,000 in aid that allowed us to purchase outstanding new equipment,” Gendron said.

Since then, many new or nearly new, slightly used or reconditioned machines have been donated or obtained, resulting in an estimated $100,000 of equipment now being utilized by hundreds of students. 

Performance Physical Therapy in East Providence donated a whole line of selectorized equipment and treadmills. Assistant Principal Shani Wallace conducted a fundraiser to help buy treadmills. Sherwood Ultra Sports of Seekonk donated equipment when it closed its fitness center a few years ago. And Avalonbay Construction also contributed circuit equipment.

“We didn’t have financial resources to afford anything like this,” Sheehan said.

Now, students have a fitness center in their own high school.

“It’s more like the gyms and gives everyone an incentive to work out,” physical education teacher Kristin Bovi-Pallotta said. “More kids are trying to sign up for fitness. And it is less intimidating. It takes fitness to the next level.”

But students realize it’s not all fun and relaxation. Getting fit is the main objective and yes, there are grades. Beads of perspiration dropped from most of the students as they moved from machine to machine. There was little, if any idle time.

“These activities exercise every major muscle group,” said Shane Messier, another physical education teacher at the school. “Once they finish one activity, it’s on to the next one to complete the circuit. There is little rest and they have to adjust to their own individualized program.”

The program also squares with what fitness means to student life today — and down the road.

“Many kids go to a health and fitness center now or will do so at college,” Gendron said. “And most are not playing high school sports or going to play intercollegiate sports. So we want to offer them a great environment to teach important concepts.”

Sheehan has embraced these changes, especially since being fitter often lessens the effect of other health problems such as childhood obesity and diabetes.

“Chances are the younger they are when they start to work out, the more it becomes an habitual occurrence that will follow them all the way to adulthood,” she said.