The Willow Glen Resident

School loses physical education to 20-to-1

Teachers' individual efforts to replace the schoolwide program

By Cecily Barnes

When school started at Willow Glen Elementary this fall, the much-loved physical education program Body Builder did not. It could not continue, school officials said, because the funding simply wasn't available.

"The parents certainly tried very hard to save the program," said Arleen Runels, who taught the program for 28 years. "But it just didn't happen."

Now as kids come to school each day, it is the responsibility of each teacher to provide the state-required 3 1/2 hours of physical education every two weeks.

The Body Builder program was started by Arleen Runels in 1978 exclusively at Willow Glen Elementary School. It was an innovative motor-development program that teaches kids a host of balancing, coordination, and cognitive development skills.

"They think they're having a wonderful time, but really everything they do is a very specific learning process," Runels said. "For the younger kids, we have stations. We might have a balancing station, a throwing station and a station where they climb through shapes."

Kids said they loved the program, and parents said their kids learned continuously.

"I saw all the change and help that kids received from it," said Sherry Rodriguez, a parent and alumna of the school. "At first, some kids couldn't walk a straight line, and then they could after the Body Builder program."

The Body Builder program is losing its funding to the 20-to-1 class-size reduction. For the past three decades, the program was funded by a makeshift arrangement, where each teacher accommodated an extra student, freeing Runels from classroom teaching.

Last year, however, the mandatory class-size reduction in grades one through three made it unfeasible to take on extra students. To receive the extra funding, class sizes could not be any larger than 20 students, no exceptions.

"Willow Glen Elementary had always relied on taking an extra one or two kids in order to free up Arleen Runels," San Jose Unified School District board member Carol Myers said. 'This [20-to-1] is really having some additional effects on teachers because that formula is so rigid, you can't go over even one or two."

But parents weren't willing to let it rest at that. Last May, a large group of Body Builder supporters showed up at a board meeting to make a tearful plea to the district to save the program. Board members and Superintendent Linda Murray promised to look into possible solutions. However, other than suggesting the school apply for grant money, no solution was found.

Since her yearly income would then be based on unpredictable grant funds, Runels decided to stick with classroom teaching.

"It would be a lot of money for the district just to pay," Myers said. "If you start doing it for this one school, than everyone else will start getting in line and saying, 'Do it for us too.' "

Still, parents are very disappointed.

"A whole bunch of us parents fought for this all last year but we just were unable to do it," Rodriguez said. "I am very crushed that all the work we put into it didn't do any good."

Although the program will not likely return to Willow Glen Elementary as it was, Principal Lois Allen says she hopes to have Runels write out the curriculum so it can be available to teachers on a check-out basis.

"It's one of these difficult situations," Allen said. "Something wonderful has come our way, and now we have to give something up."

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