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Board hears renewal request for PE waiver that reduces required PE time to expand electives and career pathways
Summary
Administrators said renewing the district’s PE waiver allows more elective and career-pathway options for middle- and high-school students; board members asked about minimum PE exposure, health and brain-health research, and staffing implications if the waiver is not renewed.
Elmwood Park CUSD 401 staff asked the board to consider renewing a five-year waiver that reduces the district’s in-building physical-education load so students can access electives and college-and-career pathway courses.
District presenters said the waiver, originally adopted in 2020, lets the district require two years of high-school PE (which may be spread across four years) and one year at the middle-school level, while preserving students’ option to take additional PE. Staff said that flexibility has made room in students’ schedules for year-long electives such as band and Spanish and for nine middle-school career-study courses offered across trimesters.
Presenters cautioned that without a renewed waiver the middle school would likely have to move to a schedule requiring PE three times per week, which they said would reduce elective opportunities and could affect year-long music and language classes. At the high-school level, staff estimated that reinstating a stricter PE schedule would require roughly 1.7 full-time equivalent positions (about two teachers) and could force the district to reallocate or reduce elective positions in business, fine arts or world languages.
Board members asked several clarifying questions: what constitutes the minimum PE exposure (staff said most middle-school students take one trimester, roughly 12 weeks); whether the district can require students to take at least one PE semester each year (staff said that is a school-based scheduling decision and that, in practice, most students take a PE semester each year); and whether the state PACE (college-and-career pathway) framework affects the district (staff said the PACE requirements are being phased down to middle schools and that the district is already well engaged with PACE work).
District presenters noted the waiver does not prevent students from taking PE every year; they also said that many students take PE each year voluntarily and that students involved in extracurricular athletics or year-long music courses remain physically active beyond scheduled PE. No formal vote or final board action on the waiver was taken at the meeting; staff said they will bring a renewal request forward for approval next month if the board supports moving ahead.
