By: Anastasia Gelardi

While Batavia Public School District 101 is preparing for the 2015-2016 school year, the Batavia High School administration has made the decision to eliminate Dance from the P.E Curriculum at BHS moving forward, leaving students, as well as teachers and parents, disappointed.

BHS has offered a wide variety of different classes to take for P.E credit. These classes include Excel P.E, Dance, Team and Individual Sports, Walking P.E, and Freshman P.E. Each of these classes focuses around a different type of physical activity.

These classes, with the exception of Walking and Dance, will continue to be offered as PE courses at BHS.

¨Excel P.E is tailored towards more physical sports, so it is beneficial for athletes such as football and basketball players,” said Melissa Slome, a sophomore Dance student and Dance Team member at Batavia.  ¨However, dance gym gives athletes such as gymnasts, cheerleaders, and dancers a place to work out in a way that is better tailored towards the flexibility and skill set that we need for our sports.¨

Excel isn’t for everyone. The workouts are tailored for athletes that want to workout, condition, and lift in class. Dance provides a good workout as well, tailored for other kinds of athletes. It trains these athletes in the way that fits the type of athlete they are, just like Excel does. The only difference now is that Dance will no longer be offered, and Excel will continue to be.

¨Based on course requests, administration made the decision when creating the master schedule and course offerings for all of the Batavia High School students,” said Sara Thomas, the Wellness and Fine Arts coordinator at BHS. ¨However, we will be including elements of the Dance and the Walking for Wellness curriculum into the Group Fitness class.  We needed to consolidate a few classes so that we could offer Adventure Physical Education which survey results showed that a large number of students had shown great interest.¨

Typically, only one Dance class is formed per year, with about thirty students. Taking this away wouldn’t be much more of a difference in the curriculum, as far as adding new courses goes. There would still be room for new PE courses and opportunities for other BHS students to try these new classes.

After every term that Dance PE is offered, the class performs their routines they’ve choreographed and learned for their peers as a midterm/final grade.

¨I have been to Dance multiple times and have seen their final performances,¨ said Thomas. ¨The performances were great! We have so many talented students at BHS.¨

Although the new PE curriculum is set for next year, my Dance classmates and I are hopeful that the class we love so much will be brought back in the future, and hopefully before it’s our turn to graduate.