Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
District 55 Schools Superintendent Larry Horton told the board Monday night the district will need to add at least two physical education teachers minimum to meet a state recommendation of 150 minutes per week of PE for elementary schools that will be in place in 2014.
Horton proposed a budget for this school year that would have included two PE teachers, and the discussion eventually became one PE teacher and one music teacher. Those positions didn’t survive the budget process.
Realistically, it will have to be next year before a new elementary PE program can be started, he said.
Horton, Foster Principal Glenna DeSouza and Hawthorne Principal Mike Aman visited two PE programs, one at Shirley Elementary School in Salem and one in Independence to get an idea how the programs are run elsewhere.
The Independence program has PE every day for everyone in the school, Horton said. Every day, for 20 minutes, everyone at the school must participate in an exercise period. When they visited, that included Horton, DeSouza and Aman.
Test scores are up at that school, Horton said, though he noted that doesn’t necessarily mean it was PE that drove them up. The school is making other efforts to improve test scores, but “research shows some positives to the physical activity.”
That teacher handles about 400 students, Horton said, but she wants to add one more PE teacher to the program. Right now, the program provides 20 minutes per day for everyone in the school, and each class spends two or three days per week in another 30-minute session meeting the state’s recommendation.
One teacher per 400 students is “pretty doable,” Horton said based on the visits. District 55 has about 1,000 students at elementary schools, not counting kindergarten.
At that ratio, every student would see the teacher twice a week.
“You cannot run a quality program with one instructor for 1,000 kids,” Horton said. “Five hundred, possibly. If we want to try to have PE back in the elementary grades, it’ll take two teachers.”
And to meet the state’s recommendation, they’ll have to work with the regular classroom teachers, who already provide a little PE on their own, to supplement the program, Horton said.
Horton also gave an update on the high school tennis courts.
He held up a couple of red and blue plastic tiles, “This could be your next tennis court.”
During his research into grants, he came across the material, similar to or the same as the tiles used in the city’s racquetball court. It’s portable and could be used on a temporary site, like the old tennis courts used as parking across Long Street from the high school, until new permanent courts are constructed.
Such a decision would require the city’s approval because of parking requirements, Horton said, and the material has its detractors as well, although might depend on the level of the player. It can be slippery, but it also is low-maintenance. Klamath Falls has been using the same material for 20 years. It costs about $20,000 per court.
In the meantime, he has continued looking into grants, he said. One grant will require the district, city and Boys and Girls Club apply to join a tennis program sponsored by the national tennis association and parks association, Horton said. Once done, the district can apply for a $50,000 grant to help build new tennis courts.
He also is looking for other grants, he said.
The district removed the fencing from its tennis courts last week.
Now, Horton is working with local contractors on a plan to tear out the courts themselves, he said.
The School Board agreed last month to remove the tennis courts in exchange for $25,000 from the Sweet Home Economic Development Group. SHEDG also will provide up to an additional $75,000 in matching funds in the next three years to help pay for new courts or other district projects.
The Oregon Jamboree, operated by SHEDG, will use the space to expand its entry area, rearrange some parts of the festival and add some new seating capacity. The district will be able to use the new field for other sports, such as soccer.