Student athletes wanting to opt out of mandatory Physical Education (PE) requirements at local schools will soon have to spend more hours on the pitch, track, court or athletic venue of their choice as the District is considering revisions to its program that allows some students to skip PE at school if they compete in a sports program on their own time.
The Independent Study for Physical Education (ISPE) option currently requires students to show 3.3 hours of physical activity per week to qualify for the PE exemption. However, that may increase to 5 hours for middle school and 10 hours for high school students following a review of SMMUSD’s program.
SMMUSD’s Director of Curriculum And Instruction, Dr. Ashley Benjamin, told the board the changes will bring the local program into alignment with both state standards and practices at neighboring districts. She said the California Department of Education (CDE) came through SMMUSD last year to review PE programs at local schools.
“While they did not specifically audit ISPE at the time, the PE auditor did inform us, made very clear to all of our PE teachers and admin at the time, that our ISPE model would be a finding and our ISPE did not meet the CDE criteria and was out of compliance.”
Language in the new applications for an ISPE says students should be in a competitive, not recreational sports program. Applying students should be:
● engaged in advanced levels of competition through demanding, regular, out-of school, elite physical activity
● engaged in a preparation program for regional, state, national, or Olympic-level athletic competition in an individual or team sport or physically active performing art
● competitively ranked in their program & not already offered at school (high school level)
Several parents came to the meeting to oppose the change saying the requirement for “elite” athletes was unfair and arguing it would reduce a student’s ability to participate in additional electives.
While officials acknowledged that students who are exempt from PE can fill that slot with another elective class, they said that’s not the point of the program and therefore not a consideration.
“Again, the intent of ISPE is not to provide an opportunity for a second elective,” said Benjamin. “It’s for the elite, highly competitive athlete who spends extensive hours participating in their physical education.”
She said the increased hours are not a burden to the kind of student who should be using the program and the SMMUSD requirement of just 3 hours per week has been an outlier among Los Angeles school districts who generally have much higher thresholds for participation. She said that it’s in line with the practice schedule for organized High School sports.
“This increase reflects the nature of a practice schedule for an elite competitive athlete. In fact, many elite athletes typically exceed these hours,” she said. “We also researched other local school districts that offer an ISPE program. And for all of them, the minimum weekly requirement for both middle and high school was 10 to 15 hours.”
SMMUSD Boardmember Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein said he supports the changes and that his son used the program to facilitate a professional career in dance.
“It wasn’t about clearing a schedule for taking more classes. It was like, ‘How do I get out of here quicker, be trained, do training, and then have homework for the existing classes?’ So I don’t find that to be problematic at all. I know that’s at odds with some of the community members who wrote in, but I want to say, I think that there was a good, positive improvement for us.”
While the Board was supportive of the changes, formal approval will come at the March 19 meeting. If approved there, the new applications will go out to the community on March 21 and students will have until May 2 to apply.
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