Students get plenty of exercise thanks to grants and dedicated staff, Mendoza said. Basketball games, tennis, racquetball, treadmills, elliptical machines and stationary bikes at the campus were paid for with the grants, Mendoza said.
“It’s like going to your local gym,” he said.
Despite cost cutting elsewhere in the districts, Glendale and Burbank have preserved P.E. for elementary school students. Instead of free-for-all soccer games, credentialed teachers lead drills and healthy habits.
“There’s an emphasis on skill-building and then eventually team-building,” Jolly said.
“They lay it all out on lesson plans and have a coordinated and purposeful approach.”
But elementary physical education programming could see reductions as school districts brace for fewer resources from Sacramento.
“The fear I’ve got is, ‘Gosh, as we lose resources, will we be able to keep those programs in place?’” Escalante said.
