POMEROY — The Meigs Local School District was recently awarded the Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) grant.

PEP Grant Coordinator Ron Hill said the grant is distributed for three years, and could provide over $1 million to the district for physical education programs. The goal of the program is to prevent childhood and adolescent obesity by improving the physical education (PE) programs.

Hill said the district was picked in the second round of the grant process approximately one month ago, leaving little time to get the project up and running.

A letter sent home with all students in the district detailed the goals of the program.

Funding from the program will allow the district to improve the PE curriculum to include a wider range of physical activities and technologies for objective assessment of physical activity levels and fitness programs; implement SPARK curriculum; promote nutrition education and collaborate with several community partners to increase opportunities for students to be active and learn about healthy eating choices.

Students in grades kindergarten through 10th will receive pedometers to monitor their activity throughout the day, and students in grades 5-12 will use three-day physical activity recall instruments to collect data.

In addition to the daily physical activity logs, the district will be measured on the percentage of the students who achieve age-appropriate cardiovascular fitness levels. Middle and high school students will use a 20-meter shuttle run, while elementary students will chose between a fourth-mile run or a half-mile run.

The final measurement in the grant will be the percentage of students who consume the recommended portions of fruits and vegetables per day.

The first data is to be collected the week of Nov. 13, with additional data collected four more times throughout the year.

Anyone with questions about the grant is asked to contact Hill at (740) 992-3058.