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Many of San Francisco's public elementary schools aren't scheduling as much time as they should for student exercise, according to a new UCSF study to be announced today.

Part of the problem is that while middle and high schools can require students to take a certain number of physical education classes, elementary schools don't have such scheduled periods. State budget cuts and pressure to raise test scores have also pushed physical education down the priority list, teachers told researchers.

In response to the report, San Francisco Unified School District officials said Wednesday they plan to hire four additional P.E. specialists for the city's 73 elementary schools, bringing the total number to 19.

"Ideally we would love to be able to have a dedicated P.E. teacher for each school," said district spokeswoman Gentle Blythe. "Given that that's not likely, the next best set of actions that we plan to take is to make sure we have more professional development for multi-subject teachers around teaching P.E., and also to help principals make sure that requirements are met."

State policy says elementary school students should receive 200 minutes of scheduled physical education for every 10 days, or about 20 minutes a day. Recess doesn't count toward that total. Middle- and high-school students should get an average of 40 minutes of scheduled physical education a day, according to the state.

About one-fifth of the elementary schools included in the study met that goal, the study found. On average the city's schools scheduled 150 minutes of physical education every 10 days but only managed to actually hold 114 minutes of physical activity due to schedule changes or other problems.

The UCSF researchers observed fifth-, seventh- and ninth-grade physical education classes at 20 elementary schools, four middle schools and four high schools on three days between February and May last year. The researchers also interviewed students, teachers and principals.

Exercise among children has been the focus of national attention in recent years, with campaigns like first lady Michelle Obama's initiative to fight childhood obesity. The results of last year's state Physical Fitness Test showed that only one-third of California schoolchildren could be considered fit enough to complete six assessments.

"Teachers feel incredibly overwhelmed and overburdened," said Hannah Thompson, a leader of the UCSF study. "When it comes down to it, schools have to think about things they are held accountable for, like test scores."

Still, the school district has succeeded in some areas of physical education. Thompson said that while other school districts in the state have great racial and socioeconomic disparities when it comes to access to physical education programs, the study did not find such gaps within San Francisco schools.

The UCSF study was supported by Shape Up San Francisco, a city health initiative. Funding came from the California Obesity Prevention Project.

This article appeared on page C - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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S.F. elementary schools falling short on exercise

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