Last Month Ms. Casey informed me that the PE position at Inez was going to be cut to a half-time position. This has been a yearly threat my whole career. I am fortunate to work at a school where Physical Education is valued, and Ms. Casey has been able to find a way to fund the other half of the position. This however is not the case at every school. In what ever time I have left in my teaching career, I am going to advocate for full-time Physical Education for every student in the district. Here is a copy of the letter I wrote to district leadership. It is a lengthy letter.
To Whom it May Concern,
Virtually every metric centered around the health and wellness of children in our schools suggests that students are less physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy post Covid. Students have exchanged play time for screen time. They experience higher incidence of depression and anxiety, and healthy positive social interaction is labored at best. If you have spent any time in an elementary school, this is painfully obvious. There have been decades of research proving that physical activity improves every health metric. The research is clear that an increase in the structured teaching of movement skills, Physical Education, gives students the skills, knowledge, and confidence to pursue physical activities that will reduce depression and anxiety, improve mood and attention, and provide a healthy positive self-image. We also know through research that physical activity/Physical Education improves academic success. A high-quality program will teach enriching Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary. Science comes to life in Physical Education, and you can’t play any game without learning how to cooperate and respect others. The question I have is, why would Albuquerque Public Schools ever consider reducing the Physical Education our K-6 students receive? Why wouldn’t you do everything in your power to increase Physical Education and its proven benefits? You do realize that every minute you take away translates to more sitting, which means more anxiety and depression. We know through research that more time in seats does not equal better academic results.
I am The Physical Education teacher at Inez Elementary School. I am approaching the end of my 26th year teaching in APS, all at Inez. This week I was informed by my principal that the Physical Education position at Inez will be cut to half-time for the 24/25 school year due to our enrollment being at 300, we were one student short.
New Mexico is consistently ranked as having amongst the highest percentage of overweight or obese children in the nation. According to 2022 data published by the New Mexico Department of Health, 31% of kindergartners and 42% of 3rd graders in our state are either overweight or obese. Unfortunately, most of these students are obese. It is extremely concerning that these percentages are still significantly trending upwards post Covid. Anecdotally, in my classes, not only have I seen a noticeable physical learning gap post Covid, but students are more reluctant to attempt physical activities. Educators worldwide are concerned about the loss of reading, writing and math skills. As a Physical Educator, I am concerned about the loss of “real” play. Studies have shown that around 55% of obese children go on to be obese in adolescence, around 80% of obese adolescents will still be obese in adulthood, and around 70% will be obese over the age of 30.
The state of New Mexico, led by its largest district, should be increasing, not decreasing the number of minutes in Physical Literacy instruction for elementary school age students. “Physical literacy is the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge, and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life.” A high-quality Physical Education program teaches not only the physical skills needed to be a competent mover who learns through movement. More importantly, the program teaches the benefits of having a physically, socially, and emotionally balanced healthy lifestyle on their lives and the lives of the people around them.
I am by no means under the impression that Physical Educators alone can change this trend. Currently, my students receive 75-minutes of physical literacy (Physical Education) per week. I cannot make a child “fit” in 75 minutes. They receive 120-minutes of literacy and 90 minutes of math per day, and we are still struggling to make gains in the literacy rate. While much of our attention is focused on improving reading levels, importantly, our attention on the metric most important, the health and wellness of our students, continues to be overlooked. . . 75-minutes versus 600/450-minutes per week. Even, including recess (which I will adamantly) with data refute as being equivalent to Physical Education, is this truly the value we put into the health and wellness of our students.
Years ago I sat on a working group with State Senator Mimi Stewart to draft Senate Bill 304 which proposed daily physical education for students K-6 in New Mexico. Though it did not pass, it did garner widespread support on its merit. Like many things in life, we assume value based on time and money spent. As a retired educator, and staunch supporter of kids, Senator Stewart sees value in what Physical Educators provide to students. The supporters, as well as the legislators, who opposed the bill were in support of the idea, however, were not willing to fund such a mandate. It would have required multiple teachers at every school in the state.
As a result of this experience, I became aware of the fact that the state allocates an FTE for Physical Education at every school in the state. Each district is then given discretion as to how they will use that allocation. Some districts in the state have chosen to use this allocation to provide every school in their district with at least one full time Physical Education teacher at every school site regardless of enrollment while other districts have made the choice to slice and dice teachers to divert money for other priorities. Unfortunately, there is no health data of which I am aware that corresponds to these administrative decisions. In Albuquerque, there are schools that are well below 300 students that have 1.5 or 2 teachers, as well as schools like Inez that are around 300 or slightly above with half an allocation. This is due to funding passed during the Richardson administration that sought to increase not only the quantity but also the quality of elementary Physical Education in our state. As often is the case, this mandate eventually became unfunded, with some schools never receiving the funding. This is the perfect example of putting your money and time where your priorities lie. Every student statewide deserves high quality, fully funded (FTE) physical literacy instruction taught by a certified Physical Education Teacher. This year, on many occasions I have heard educators say that reading should be considered a civil right. I believe the health and wellness of our children is at least equally as worthy.
Over the course of my career, I have
· participated in working groups to discuss childhood obesity.
· Member of the first district SHAC (Student Health Advisory Council). I was invited to additional meetings and asked to be the guest speaker at other meetings.
· Presented at the district ACE conference for administrators.
· Worked with Healthy Kids New Mexico through the Department of Health to help design the 5,2,1,0 Childhood Health Challenge Initiative in 2014
· Keynote speaker at the New Mexico Student Health Head to Toe Conference.
· Assisted in planning and presented at several NM SHAPE (Society of Health and Physical Educators) Conferences, as well as hosted our conference at Inez Elementary School.
· Helped design, hosted, or presented at every district K-8 Physical Education PD the district has officially or unofficially offered for over the past 15 years (includes the widely successful K-12 Physical Education Summit offered this past November)
· Regular attendee of the SHAPE national convention (last year attended with a group of high school Health teachers through the Student Health and Life Skills Department
· Golden Apple Fellow.
· Prior to the 22-23 school year, helped convene a group of teachers and professors from UNM to work on creating a UNM/APS PLC that would address the needs of Physical Education teachers and to address the needs of our students in APS.
· This amazing group set the goal of increasing the quantity and improve the quality of PD opportunities to teachers, advocate for more funding for programming in the district, and improve the morale of Physical Educators. To that end our group was part of a research project on “Physical Educator’s Sense of Belonging in their school/district. This study was presented at the SHAPE National Convention last year. Our group, composed of six teachers, has since gone on to successfully write and receive two APS foundation grants totaling over $30,000. The first grant was to create an outdoor education program that would include biking, rollerblading, camping, land paddling, fishing, and orienteering/geocaching. We are in our first of 3- years of implementation. This group also spent last summer planning the first ever K-12 Physical Education Summit, presented in November, which was very well received. Our second grant, which the APS Foundation suggested we write, was a grant requesting funding for our group to attend the SHAPE National Convention in Cleveland this year. We are the first group ever awarded by the Foundation to go to a national convention of any kind. “You are the guinea pigs” we were told. Our goal is to absorb as much quality PD and create as many professional connections as possible so we can make the second annual K-12 Physical Education Summit an even greater success than the first.
Over the course of the thousands of interactions focused on the health and wellness of children during the above professional opportunities, I have never had a single person express to me the need for a reduction of Physical Literacy Instruction/Physical Education. In fact, the opposite is the norm so long as the instruction is of high quality. SHAPE America considers 120-minutes per week to be best practices. It’s worth repeating, every student statewide deserves high-quality, fully funded physical literacy instruction taught by a certified Physical Education Teacher.
My principal was told that the district is funding a position, not a person. As a professional, I understand that. “He can just retire”. . . maybe. “He can expand his knowledge base by working at a second school,”. . .probably. I have never listed my accomplishments anywhere, ever, because since college I have had only one job, the job that became my dream job. I have never felt the need to update my resume from the original one out of college.
Along with the professional responsibilities I described above, the list includes:
· NMAHPERD Elementary School Physical Education Program of the Year.
· NMAHPERD Elementary Physical Education Teacher of the Year.
· NMAHPERD Merit Service award.
· Let’s Move Active Schools National Award, the only ever awarded to a school in New Mexico.
· APS Teacher of the Month, SHAPE NM President.
· Golden Apple Fellow.
I am very proud of the work that I have been able to do in my career, however none of the plaques or banners on my wall, makes this job my dream job, “the best job in the district, being the Physical Education teacher at Inez.” It’s the life-long connections I have made with my students and families. I was a YMCA counselor at Inez prior to becoming a teacher. I have received invitations to high school graduations from the children of kids that were in that program. In fact, I have many “kids of kids.” My most prized school possessions are the many invitations to high school and college graduations that are a centerpiece in my gym. It was through the work of my wife and I that Inez became a community school. Our students needed more, and we went out and found a way to provide it. For the past 20 years I have hosted thousands of families at monthly Family Fitness Nights, Family Movie Nights, and Family Picnics/Talent Shows. Some of the recipients of this letter have attended some of the events. My program, which literally began with a couple jump ropes, a few playground balls, an old green trash can filled with dead and dying beanbags, and without a gym is now one of the most robust programs in APS. I continue to want more for my students. This has come as a result of either being the lead writer, support writer, or participant in well over $500,000 worth of Foundation, state, private, or national grants. My job is a labor of love that I have always worked hard for. I am able to offer my students non-traditional activities such as: rock climbing, kinder-5th grade biking, rollerblading, camping, archery, geocaching, orienteering, fishing, land paddling, ninja warrior type obstacle course, lacrosse, and fitness training including heart rate monitoring. I teach nutrition, I have practiced mindfulness in my class long before it was a SEL trend in the district. We have a “fit-lab” that contains kid sized fitness equipment to be utilized by teachers with students who need a physical break to be able to go back into their class and focus on academics.
Prior to Covid, I held after school fitness classes for teachers. I hosted Friday after school Archery for Teachers to unwind after a long week. Everything told to my principal is true, however, you can try to tell anyone who has been a part of Inez that I have merely been “filling a position.” I’m sure they will inform you that I have been a leader in helping to build our school and community. Indeed, I could retire. I have thought about it, even prior to this, but I’m not done. As stated earlier I’m still in the middle of important work. Unlike many teachers that I interact with, I still get up and go to work every day excited to teach my passion to our students. It’s well beyond throwing, catching, and running, and as much about teaching kids the importance of decency and RESPECT. Why would anyone in education suggest that someone like me retire, this seems opposite of what we would want for our students. And lastly, expand my horizons and work at another school. Last week I wrote a quote on my whiteboard for my students that I heard that morning before school. “The greatest gifts in life are Time and Love.” I have spent my entire adult life giving my time and love to Inez. It’s not only been my gift to my students, but selfishly a gift from my students as well. Time and Love. Every day students give up their time to share their time and love with me at recess, or after school, or in a store on the weekend. Is cutting this position to half time worth one student, really, one student… It could have been the little girl who on our first PD day in January was pounding on my locked gym doors. When I went to see who was banging on my doors I saw a former student who I recognized immediately as she rushed to open the door. She fell into my arms and said I came back because of you Mr. Anderson. She stops by the gym to say, “Hi!” everyday . . . time and love. I suppose you have the power to essentially send me into retirement over one student, but I’m sure this district will lose a strong advocate for the health and wellness of all students, teachers, and strong communities. All of which we should all agree is important to APS
The people that I have included on this email were not chosen randomly, some are people that I respect within the district that I have either worked with in the past or am currently working with. Some have seen my work either at Inez or in the district up close. And a few of you may not know who I am or what I do at all. I am always happy to discuss this important topic. I would love the opportunity to help problem solve ways to build strong research driven Physical Education Programs throughout the district.
Sincerely,
Michael Anderson
Inez Elementary School
Physical Education
2019 NM Golden Apple Fellow
Inez P.E. 