Students to receive PE credits for marching band

Starting this year, the first semester of marching band offers PE credits, enabling students to complete the PE requirements for high school graduation after completing two years of marching band. Ultimately, this new policy provides another way for students to fulfill the PE requirement for high school graduation without needing to take a PE course.

Cupertino High School requires students to earn at least two credits in Physical Education (PE) after freshman year to graduate. These credits can be completed in one of two ways: a student can take part in two seasons of sports in their sophomore, junior or senior years, or they can enroll in a PE class (PE 10-12, PE Weight Training, PE Martial Arts or PE Total Fitness) for an entire year. The last, however, occupies an elective spot.

Over the last few years, it has become difficult to take a course load of seven classes because of the growing population of the school. For that reason, the CHS administration only guarantees a schedule with six classes. Students who need to complete PE credits, but who are also taking a history, English, math, science and language class, have no choice but to forfeit other electives that they would like to take, including marching band itself.

Said junior Ryan Mohta, “Marching band is physically demanding. We do a lot of running, stretching, and conditioning.”

While Mohta did have the opportunity to take seven classes, he chose not to. To him, the physical activity of band combined with six academic courses would have been too much.

“It’s a continuation, [students] take marching band for all four years to play music, interact with each other, and form close tight friendships. The six class cap did not prevent students from taking band, but many students are happy that they can now complete their PE credits through band and not worry about taking PE,” Mohta said.

Providing PE credits to members of the Proud Pioneer marching band is good news to many. Rather than worrying about completing their credits by taking a PE class or by joining a sports team, students dedicated to band can focus on what they love: playing music with friends, creating lifetime bonds with peers and performing at football games.