In what district officials are calling one of the most difficult budget years, the South Colonie Central School District has included in their adopted 2009-2010 budget plans to end the health program in grades one through four.
The issue was widely discussed at the district’s budget hearing Tuesday, May 5, at Saddlewood Elementary School. At that hearing Donna Thompson, a teacher at Roessleville Elementary School, stressed the need to continue addressing the topics covered in elementary-level health classes.
Thompson said she was afraid that children will not be aware of many of the dangers in life if the program is eliminated. She was also concerned that special elementary wellness programs, such as the Walking to Peak Performance walking club will cease to exist as a result of the cut.
District officials said they are phasing out the elementary health program because they are being forced to increase time spent on physical education.
According to Supervisor of Physical Education and Athletics David Foust, the requirement is that students in kindergarten through third grade have physical education daily for 120 minutes per week.
Foust said the mandate has been around since the 1980s and that most school districts have ignored it until now.
The requirement has been there for some time, and districts throughout New York state have not met that mandate, and the emphasis has really come to light based on the health status of kids lately, said Foust.
The problem lies, Foust said, on where to come up with the time to increase physical education.
`Where do you capture those minutes?` he asked. `The student day is comprised of X amount of minutes. You still need to have instructional units being taught.`
Foust said the district has worked hard to come up with a plan for the students to meet the requirements.
`Presently our students come to physical education three times a week for 30 minutes. So, we need to create an additional 30 minutes of physical education per week,` Foust explained. `We’re going to have them come down for 15 minutes on the other two days.`
Foust said the activities the students will participate in on the other two days will be fitness/wellness oriented and deal with health aspects, as well as water safety and traffic safety.
While health subjects will be incorporated into physical education courses and other core curriculum courses in the absence of health class, several audience members at Tuesday’s hearing were concerned about health-related instruction and the loss of certified health teachers.
Three out of nine out those positions will be cut districtwide, according to Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Tim Backus.
`Most districts don’t have a certified health teacher delivering health at those levels,` Superintendent of Schools Jonathan Buhner said. `We can’t solve all the childhood obesity and diabetes concerns, so we need to do our part as a school district. … The challenge we had was that it is mandated. It becomes a question of, ‘How do you fit it all into the schedule?’`
Backus said the main goal of the district moving forward is to ensure that topics that were being taught in elementary health are carried over to other subjects, but not neglected.
`The goal is to get the major concepts that are covered right now into the curriculum,` said Backus, explaining that he has been working with the science and social studies departments, as a lot of the topics that are included in the health program can be incorporated into those subject matters. “
