New PE Credit Program Gives Student-Athletes More Flexibility
Incoming sophomores will be given the chance to use their participation in interscholastic sports, including football, spirit squad, marching band, and color guard, to get PE credits and an extra space in their schedule for elective classes.
Starting in the 2026-2027 school year, CVHS will be piloting a program for an alternative way of getting PE credits.
Athletes will have to complete a year of freshman PE, and they can use their participation in sports towards PE credits in their sophomore and junior years.
If athletes make the team, they will be given five credits for the whole school year–one semester of credit. If athletes don’t get on a team, they’ll automatically be placed in a sophomore PE class.
Since normal PE students get ten credits per year, athletes in this program must continue their interscholastic sport through their sophomore and junior years to get the full PE credit needed to graduate.
Student-athletes who quit the sport or don’t finish a season will not receive the PE credits and will need to take the full year of sophomore PE, either in their sophomore or junior year. Even if athletes do more than one sport per school year, they will only receive five credits toward PE.
This differs from independent PE classes now available at CVHS; this is a waiver for a chance to take other electives or even have a free period. This way, students can complete their VAPA and CTE credits earlier or lower the load of classes they are taking.
There are mixed feelings about this new program.
“Professionally, it’s a little conflicting,” said PE teacher and Department Chair Nicole Manley. “It’s almost, in a sense, saying you can substitute activity for a PE class, but PE stands for physical education, so education is happening.”
CVHS is preparing for the influx of students going from PE to other classes and is even making PE electives available for sophomores to take, including athletic performance, strength and conditioning, and leisure sports.
“I’m happy that we have caught up with the other schools’ PE credit program,” said Amy Encarnacion Naimaa, a freshman in marching band.
Other schools have their own version of this program, and students at CVHS may be asking themselves why they don’t have that option yet. CVHS wants to give its students that opportunity, but there will still be some wrinkles to iron out.
“It’s a pilot program; we have a lot of learning to do and how to tweak this and make it what’s best for students,” said Athletic Director Desirae Feria.
I think this proposition is a very convenient option for student-athletes. There is a number of students who participate in sports, and to have to take PE as well is a little bit of a waste since they are going to do other physical activity. It frees up their schedule for another elective, which is more time effective.
This is helpful because it can reduce the stress of having a packed schedule in Junior year. I think because the student has to participate in the sport Junior and Sophomore year it is fair.
This program would be really helpful, especially for student athletes, as students can earn credits outside of PE classes. This could help students reduce their schedules and have more room to take other classes or have a free period.
I know this won’t apply to me since I’m not a freshmen anymore, but I feel sports substituting for P.E. credit is going to excite many students. I feel some students may feel like having to take P.E. in their sophomore year takes up too much space in their schedule and may want to use that slot to free up space in their schedule or take another class. I thought this was a very well written article, and good job getting perspectives of both sides!
As a transfer student, I appreciate this implementation a lot. I am missing an odd amount of PE credits due to different graduation requirements at my previous school, and that would’ve forced me to take a semester of PE in my senior year. Taking it during then would’ve been very inconvenient because I already had a full schedule planned, not accounting for an extra class. Now I can maintain my ideal schedule and participate in my sport, alongside earning PE credit!
I think it’s a very interesting take on how PE credits can be earned while there being no significant downsides than another extracurricular activity.
This will be a cool option for athletes because then they can take other classes for A-G while also earning pe credits.
I wish they did this earlier! This would’ve helped a lot of upcoming senior athletes with the last couple years.
As an athlete, this is really exciting to hear. I think it will help a lot of other athletes with packed schedules to shorten their day or take other classes that interest them. This is really well written, good job Elliot!