Elmwood Park students | Twitter / Elmwood Park district
Elmwood Park students | Twitter / Elmwood Park district
At the Dec. 21 meeting of the The Elmwood Park Community Unit School District board, Kim Ontiveros, the director for curriculum and instruction, gave a presentation on seeking a waiver from the state on the PE requirements for the elementary school.
The state of Illinois currently requires a minimum of three instances of PE instruction per five-day instructional week. The district would like to petition the state board of education to waive this requirement. The board will have a public hearing on Jan. 11 to discuss it with the community.
Ontiveros explained a waiver would give the district more flexibility in scheduling. She said the district's special schedules for art, music and PE allow only 25-minute blocks. She said 50-minute blocks would be a more efficient use of time.
“So sometimes they're splitting it,” Ontiveros said. “So by the time the kids get down to PE, settle in, get the routine, then all of a sudden, time's up. Twenty-five minutes is up, and they have to transition to art and that's all the way upstairs. So they're not getting a lot accomplished or done during that time either. And so if we had that 50-minute block of PE, they could probably get more accomplished.”
The board questioned how much PE instruction the students would actually get if they received the waiver. Ontiveros said those specific schedules would be figured out after the district got the waiver, getting PE at least once a week, probably twice each week, but K-5 is guaranteed 30 minutes of recess every single day of the week.
The board uploaded a livestream of its meeting to the district’s YouTube channel.
The board also discussed its tax levy. The board noted its total tax levy would be $26,285,744.
The board will meet again at 7 p.m. on Jan. 18 at the Elmwood Park High School Auditorium.
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