Return gym to students' day, urges councilor

Saying that Boston's public school system has all but eliminated physical exercise as a priority for students even as concerns over obesity have mounted, a city councilor wants to mandate physical education in city schools.

Councilor Michael P. Ross plans to file a measure today urging the School Committee to require the city's middle and high schools to devote at least 225 minutes a week to physical education as an antidote to students' weight and behavior problems.

"Young people need to blow off steam, they need to recreate, and they need to clear their heads, particularly in an urban environment," Ross said. "To deprive them of that is, I believe, unfair."

Boston schools, like many schools across the country, have largely sacrificed physical education requirements in recent years as budgets have tightened and as mandates, including the federal No Child Left Behind Act and the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assess ment System, divert resources and time.

The Boston public schools established a new wellness policy last year that offers guidelines on fitness and promotes walk-to-school initiatives, television moratoriums, and nutrition education. It also calls for 90 hours of physical education a year, about 30 minutes each day, to be incorporated into the school day and after-school programs "to the extent possible."

The policy consists largely of recommendations, and it is up to each school to decide how to implement it. Ross said the measure doesn't go far enough.

Christopher Horan, spokesman for the Boston public schools, conceded that "there's probably some unevenness in how schools implement that policy."

"In Boston, as in most places, physical education and the arts may not be as robust as they once were as a result of returning to the basics of math and English," Horan said. "Sometimes gym time and arts time has suffered. No one's happy about that, but that's the times we're in."

Boston schools have taken measures to curb obesity, eliminating sugary sodas and junk food from school vending machines in 2004 after the Boston City Council passed a resolution "strongly urging" the School Committee to act.

Horan said adding physical education would mean taking time away from academics.

"Like everything else, what's the trade-off?" he said. "Kids are still not where we want them to be with basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills."

Ross's measure is modeled after a state Senate bill that would mandate physical education statewide at 150 minutes per week for elementary schools and 225 minutes for middle and high schools. That bill is scheduled for a public hearing before the Education Committee on May 29 and then would have to be approved by the full House and Senate and be signed by the governor.

Ross is hoping Boston can implement a plan sooner. He plans to hold a hearing later this month.

"The statistics are telling, but more important are health aspects," said Senator Thomas M. McGee, a Lynn Democrat and chief sponsor of the state legislation. "Young people are coming down with heart disease, high cholesterol, and diabetes. This is an important piece of what their educational opportunities should be."

In 1996, the state eliminated a 34-year-old requirement that schools give students 90 minutes a week of physical education.

In 2003, about 14 percent of Massachusetts private and public high school students attended daily physical education classes. That's half the national average, according to a 2004 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A 2005 study by the state Depart ment of Education found that about 59 percent of high school students in the state had gym class once a week, a drop from 80 percent in 1995. In that period, more students became overweight, the study found.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.