Gilroy, Morgan Hill schools don’t comply with state
requirements
Gilroy – California’s academics-only recipe for public schools may be producing results on state tests, but the dish is missing a key ingredient, according to a report released last week.
The report reveals that half of the schools assessed by the California Department of Education, including the Gilroy and Morgan Hill unified school districts, failed to provide elementary school students with the minimum physical education requirement of 200 minutes every 10 days.
The CDE collected records from school districts for the last two school years.
“It’s been a continuing problem in the state,” said Olivia Schaad, Gilroy Unified School District director of curriculum and instruction. “But I think it’s time that people do something about it.”
District officials were well aware that Gilroy elementary students weren’t receiving enough exercise before the California Center for Public Advocacy released the data on Thursday. Last year, the state conducted an audit of the district’s PE program. They observed classes and looked over fitness schedules.
State officials told the district to update old curriculum, reconfigure courses at the high school and keep track of the students with doctor’s waivers by computer, Schaad said. But because physical education is a required class in middle and the first two years of high school, the major violations occurred at the elementary school level.
Some schools are better than others at meeting the 200-minute requirement, which amounts to about 20 minutes a day, “but in some schools I don’t have any evidence that it’s happening,” Schaad.
That the fitness allotment in Gilroy varies from site-to-site and teacher-to-teacher, is the crux of the problem. There’s no consistent curriculum. Some teachers are fitness advocates and make sure their students jump around, while others are not, Schaad said.
Schools struggling to reach the state goal of 800 on the Academic Performance Index – which includes every campus except Luigi Aprea Elementary School – also tend to have less time in the day for fitness. And many educators say No Child Left Behind mandates pressure them to forgo P.E. or at least trim it.
For example, teachers at Glen View Elementary School, a low-income, low-scoring school, had to fit so many academic requirements into their day, exercise ended up on the back-burner, Schaad said.
The district employs P.E. teachers for elementary school but only for grades four through five. In grades kindergarten through third the regular classroom teacher is supposed to head P.E., making the activity much less consistent, Schaad said.
The remedy for GUSD’s fitness wound isn’t simple. At 31 percent, Gilroy has the highest percent of overweight children in Santa Clara County, according to the California Center for Public Health Advocacy. In Morgan Hill, 23 percent students are considered overweight.
The high obesity rates contribute to other notable health problems such as diabetes and sleep apnea. Also, lack of exercise and obesity can have a negative impact on academics, according to various studies.
“It’s a sad fact that P.E. is education’s ugly stepchild,” said CCPHA Executive Director Harold Goldstein, in the nonprofit’s press release. “P.E. doesn’t just help address our obesity crisis. When properly taught, physical education plays a vital role in positively affecting both the academic and behavioral performance of children, while building life-long health habits.”
The district is already taking steps to mend its fitness shortfall. Curriculum has been updated and can be viewed on the Web site. The district’s Wellness Policy, a federal mandate for any schools partaking in the free and reduced lunch program, will take effect this summer.
Under the policy, schools conducted self-assessments of fitness and nutrition and an oversight committee was assembled. In addition, the district recently purchased a kit that measures the healthiness of schools.
Still, with the emphasis on testing, Schaad said she thinks the exercise deficit will continue to be an issue in elementary schools unless the district chooses to set aside funds to hire more P.E. teachers and/or increase the school day.
The Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury also released a report recently addressing the county’s reaction to childhood obesity and lack of physical fitness. Increasing the amount of time school districts devote to PE is one of the recommendations included in the 21-page document.
