New classes will be offered as part of the Elizabethton City Schools community involvement program including adult yoga, body fitness and a students’ swim club. The proposal was approved unanimously in the Elizabethton City School Board meeting Thursday.
“For the last few years, the community involvement program has only offered water aerobics, which has been very stable,” Elizabethton High School business teacher Amber Abel said. “Over the 2015-2016 school year, we’re hoping to bring more and more classes into this program.”
Abel is the primary organizer of the proposal for these new additions, which will take place at West Side Elementary and at the EHS pool. The proposal suggests an estimated four weekly yoga classes, three weekly body fitness classes, and three weekly swim club meets, but the frequency of each could change once details are finalized.
When plans are established, the hiring process will begin for certified instructors, and the programs will launch.
“Last (Thursday’s) board approval was pretty much a first step, so now we have to post positions, interview and hire for them,” said Abel. “It will likely take about four to six weeks, so I don’t expect classes to be starting until the first or second week of October.”
The community involvement program is trying to minimize the costs for these classes compared to traditional courses offered elsewhere. Because they will take place in existing facilities, the expense to participate must only be sufficient to sustain the costs of instructors and materials. It is not a revenue-based program.
“We want the community to come into our schools so that they can use our facilities and be a larger part of our school district,” she said.
Classes will be open to the public, and the swim club will invite all students in the Tri-Cities through grade 12. Those interested must be able to swim the length of the pool unassisted.
“It’s a very inclusive program, and we’re not limiting it to kids in our district at all,” she said.
Abel has been practicing yoga for about seven years and advocates it to her track and cross country athletes as well as her students because she knows how beneficial it is. Cost and distance to classes is an issue for many, Abel believes, and that is one reason why she is so enthusiastic to make these and other programs available.
“To have something close and affordable I think is going to be very appealing to people,” she said.