Weighing Choices

A new private school aims to help overweight boys and girls make better decisions about how much to eat and how often to exercise.

Reedley, Calif.

On a foggy December night, silence envelops this tiny agricultural town nestled at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. But turn onto a narrow two-lane paved road, and soon noise punctuates the air.

In a corner of a 68-acre school campus here, the thwack of hockey sticks hitting blacktop and shouts of teenagers echo across acres of peach orchards. Halogen lights flood a basketball court where a half-dozen middle and high school students dodge and weave during the street hockey game, their faces rosy-cheeked from exertion.

It seems like a typical after-school game. But such physical activity was unthinkable for these students a...