Course ‘champions’: Bertrando, Lotter honored for Fredonia health class
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Accomplished coaches Nick Bertrando and Joanne Lotter have a new banner to hang at Fredonia. However, this banner is to symbolize excellence in the classroom, rather than on the court or in the pool.
At a recent meeting of the Fredonia Board of Education, Bertrando and Lotter were presented with a banner from the New York State School Boards Association to recognize them with the Champions of Change Award. Bertrando and Lotter were heralded for their new course, titled Personal Fitness and Nutrition, which was created last school year.
The course is offered as a co-ed, one semester elective class for high school students. Its purpose is defined as, "creating lifelong healthy habits improving physical fitness, nutrition, and overall well-being."
Fredonia Superintendent Dr. Brad Zilliox stated that rather than the district seeking recognition, the course was recognized through the district's social media presence.
"This is a really nice honor that did not require us to apply or submit anything. This is just something that they happened to see and thought it warranted their recognition," Zilliox said.
Zilliox then presented Bertrando and Lotter with the Champions of Change banner to a round of applause from the board and the audience.
The board also commended Bertrando and Lotter for their efforts.
"Congratulations, it's a great honor," Board of Education Vice President Steven Johnston said. "I personally feel fitness and nutrition is a big component of what we should be teaching our students. I guess you could call it a lifelong skill. I'm very, very pleased to have that program going, and to get that recognition."
Board members Courtney Gullo and Sheila Hahn also offered their thanks to Bertrando and Lotter, while member Tom Hawk said, "I hope this catches on at other schools, because it's a fantastic program."
Board of Education President Brian Aldrich said, "We can teach math, we can teach reading literature, social science, science, and they learn something but they don't always apply it right away. This is something that they can take and apply right away – and it is, it's a life skill that can mean something for a long time for our students."
"Thank you for the support," Lotter responded. "It's nice to have positive feedback."
As longtime coaches, Lotter in swimming and Bertrando in basketball, the course had personal significance to each of its instructors. Bertrando gave thanks to the board for the opportunity to implement their vision through the course.
"When we brainstormed this idea, I know there were a lot of questions. Even through our presentation last year, we received great feedback from you. We took, obviously, what we did last year and we asked our students what we could do better and what they liked," Bertrando said. "We're going to take that moving forward here into the second semester to continue to help our students be the best version of themselves throughout this course."