Frederick’s Orchard Grove Elementary School is making strides in fitness

Round and round the children went, during lunch. Teachers also joined in, in hopes of encouraging the students. The assistant principal has a necklace. By the end of last school year, 99 percent of students were in the club.

“I started to enjoy running, instead of doing things for the token,” said David Akuokoh, 9, a fourth-grader who has lost about 10 pounds en route to his 33 pendants.

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Assistant Principal Marilyn Mathews said that before the club began she would often have seven kids a day sent to her office after lunch. Now she only sees three a week.

The 15-year-old school has long championed the importance of physical activity. Mathews said one reason is a fluke of demographics: The school has 11 percent more boys than girls. It’s not unusual for a teacher to stop a lesson and instruct the students to do five jumping jacks. Of course, girls and boys alike benefit from the exercise.

In the first year of the club, the number of students rated with outstanding cardiovascular health on the county physical fitness exam rose from 12 percent to 20 percent. The share of students who needed to improve on that measure fell from 36 percent to 21 percent.

The Maryland School Assessment in reading and math for 2010 showed a 10 percentage-point increase in school pass rates. Mathews said it was hard to tell how much the running factored into the academic strides. But she noted that administrators had more time for professional development because there were fewer discipline problems and more focused students.

“It really changed the culture of the school,” she said.

Now, when Diana Rabideau’s first-graders return from lunch, they ask teachers to keep track of how much they ran. She obliges, then giggles as she overhears students try to figure out just how many more laps they need until they get a pendant.

“They are mastering math skills,” said Rabideau, who strives to teach addition and subtraction. “When they come back from lunch, they are now so calm and ready to start an activity. And the boys — the boys! — they are reading now.”

Some teachers are moved to tears as they recount the benefits of the running. They talk of students who have lost weight, parents who are grateful their kids are doing something besides playing video games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops, rewards that kids can’t fully articulate but are apparent to every adult in the school.

In the fourth grade, Dylan Wilson often walked with his head held down and needed extra help in class. Then he started to run.

“I discovered something different about myself,” Dylan said.

Then he posted the second-fastest time in the county on the 100-meter dash. Younger kids started admiring his quickness.

He used to come crying to teacher Pamela Bator because he thought he couldn’t do his work. Now, as a fifth-grader, he recently stopped by to show her the A he got on a math test.

“A completely different student,” Bator said. “He has so much confidence. Now the only thing holding his head down is the number of tokens around his neck.”