BOE panel to
discuss PE issue

A committee will consider if students
are getting enough physical education

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By Susan Essoyan
sessoyan@starbulletin.com

Given the high rate of obesity among Hawaii's children, a Board of Education committee will consider whether students are getting enough physical education in the public schools at a meeting Friday.

Although there has been talk of cutting the PE requirement in half for graduation, the committee will not be voting on that issue, according to Denise Matsumoto, chair of the Regular Education Committee.

"We just wanted to have a discussion of the implementation of physical education standards to see if we're doing everything we can," she said. "We want to know what more we can do to help our kids be more healthy."

The state mandates one year of physical education in high school. A committee on graduation requirements had suggested reducing PE and social studies to make room for other courses.

But Matsumoto said board members hope to come up with ways to schedule the school day "so that we can offer more for the students without taking any current requirements away."

Proposed changes to graduation requirements would have to be considered at public hearings across the state before any decision making, she noted.

Officials from the Department of Education and the Health Department have been invited to address the PE issue at Friday's meeting of the Committee on Regular Education, at 3:30 p.m., at the Queen Liliuokalani Building, 1390 Miller St., Room 404.

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State Board of Education