FOXBORO - School wellness consultant David Gibbs wants to help overweight students get the exercise they need - and that might mean regular stints at the YMCA.

During a status report on the schools' health and fitness programs, Gibbs said he is considering replacing gym class for certain students with a structured fitness program at the Foxboro YMCA.

Gibbs said such a plan, which he stressed is very preliminary, could provide an atmosphere more helpful to weight control than found in a regular gym class.

School committee member Kate Kominsky agreed that obesity needs to be addressed, and said possibly one in three Foxboro students was deemed overweight last year.

Gibbs said he would also like to move away from the Presidential Fitness Test for local students, which he said identified the top 85 percent of students in terms of fitness. He said a year-by-year charting of each student's physical progress would be more helpful to the student and the school department's services.

Superintendent Chris Martes, who worked with Gibbs in another school system, hired him at the start of this school year to do a major review of the wellness and physical education programs.