Schools
County School Board and Superintendent Request Veto of Newly Mandated Physical Education Classes
The unfunded mandate increases time spent in physical education.
Fairfax County School Board Chair Kathy Smith and Superintendent Jack Dale wrote to Gov. Bob McDonnell on Thursday requesting he veto SB966, a bill that would mandate 150 minutes of physical education per week by the 2014 school year.
The bill passed in the Virginia General Assembly on Feb. 17 . For more information, click
While supporting the legislation’s intent — to improve student health and reduce childhood obesity — Smith and Dale expressed concern about the very significant fiscal and instructional impacts it would cause.
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“Mandating a specific amount of time for physical education …. will force school divisions into a very difficult choice. To implement the requirement, school divisions can either incur a very large unfunded local expense to hire new physical education teachers or extend the school day to preserve currently available instructional time, or they can reduce instructional time that is currently dedicated to core academic subjects, non-PE resource classes (art, music, foreign language, science, social studies.). Preliminary FCPS estimates for staffing alone are between $18 and $24 million.”
To read Smith and Dale's entire letter see file attached to this story.
