CENTRAL KITSAP – It’s possible that student ballet dancers, cheerleaders and athletes may be able to waive some of their physical education graduation requirements and use the freed-up time to take other classes.
Central Kitsap School District board members are looking at changing district policy to allow athletes involved in Washington Interscholastic Activities Association-approved sports and activities to waive two half-credit PE classes, up to one full credit equivalent.
“Students would have to maintain a full schedule so you’re not taking a waiver so that you can take fewer classes during the school day,” said Franklyn McKenzie, CKSD director of secondary teaching and learning. “You’re not awarded credit. You can’t gain credit for this. What this is is simply a waiver … they’re granting waivers and you take something else instead. Frees-up a portion of your schedule.”
Two PE credits are required for graduation. Students would still be required to take certain PE classes such as “health” and “introduction to fitness.”
The WIAA website lists baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, football, golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball and wrestling as “athletics.” The WIAA lists cheer and dance among its list of “activities.”
Any sport or activity would need to include 75 hours of rigorous activity and have components of PE met in some form.
“You want to make sure that time is not just sitting on a bench somewhere; that you’re actually practicing, participating in some competition,” McKenzie said.
Two seasons of marching band or one year of cheerleading could qualify as a half-point waiver.
Also, hours would be capped at 1.5 hours per session, so that if a student had a four-hour practice for example, only 1.5 hours of the four-hour practice would count toward the 75-hour total.
Board member Eric Greene wondered how the school would handle injuries, then, if a student had, for example, 100 hours of activity but due to an injury and the 1.5-hour cap, wound up falling short of the 75 required hours.
“That’s a high bar. 75 hours is a pretty high bar,” said board President Bruce Richards of dancing, marching band and cheerleading.
Board member Mark Gaines responded, “You know it really isn’t. If you consider ballet to be a rigorous event, getting to 75 hours is not a problem. People go to a gym and meet after school and they’re there for 4-6 hours a day. It’s no joke,” Gaines said. “I think the question is whether or not we want to deviate from the WIAA recommendations or not.”
Gaines noted that several activities, such as lacrosse, weren’t listed as either “athletics” or “activities” by the WIAA and that could be problematic for the district.
“We’re going to have to address lacrosse. We’re going to have to address nature walks. If there’s a nature walking group that goes out walking, we’ll have to address that. To me it’s the tip of the iceberg for things we’ll have to address and evaluate,” if the district chooses to include non-WIAA athletics or activities as qualifying for the waivers, Gaines said.
Janine McNally, a PE teacher at Olympic High School, said she was OK with the idea of waivers, but added “my concern and fear is that when the board approved marching band, dance and cheerleading as a 0.5 PE credit waiver it is degrading to our CKSD PE program,” McNally said.
She said PE students today don’t just toss balls and let kids play during class but instead students went through common assessment and power standards.
“We’re not just about movement. We’re about ensuring our kids understand what it is to live a fit and healthy, active lifestyle,” McNally said.
Board member Jeanie Schulze said the board should work with the PE departments to come up with a good policy.
