Long Beach Parents Create Petition For More Gym in Elementary School

A group, “Concerned Parents of Long Beach,” recently started a petition on Change.org to give the local elementary school students additional physical education/gym time.

According to the petition, the Long Beach children in grades Kindergarten through 5th currently attend gym once in a 6 day cycle, compared to other districts on Long Island which have gym 2 to 3 times a week.

Recently, in order to meet the state mandate, the Long Beach School District removed traditional “recess” and turned it into a physical education class giving the children a total of 22 minutes to eat lunch, “unwind and socialize with their peers” before organized “recess” begins, according to the petition.

“ Gone are the days where a child can choose what they want to do during their recess,” the group wrote on the page.

The parents have suggested that changes be made to one of the “special” classes, such as Music, Art, FLES (Spanish), Gym, Library and Computers for Kindergarten through 2nd grades and Music, Art, FLES (Spanish), Gym, Health and Spirit (IB Prep) for 3rd through 5th.

“Do our students really need 42 minutes within every 6 day cycle dedicated to visiting the library? No,” the petition reads. “Couldn’t this instead be achieved by having the kids periodically visit the Library with their classroom teacher? Could the state mandates for health education instead be met by a periodic push-in health lesson in lieu of 42 minutes within every 6-day cycle?”

The petition has received a total of 571 signatures as of Thursday.

The parents will be presenting the petition during the Board of Education meeting on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Long Beach Middle School auditorium.