Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams joined Council Member Antonio Reynoso (D-Williamsburg,Bushwick) and Democratic District Leader Tommy Torres (D-Williamsburg, Bushwick) on Sunday to call for reforms to physical education spaces in Brooklyn schools.
The demand comes off the heels of troubled findings unveiled by Adams earlier this year, entitled “Physical Education Access and Infrastructure: Building the Full Personhood of New York City’s Student Population,” following from his administration’s survey of physical education spaces across the borough.
The Office of the Brooklyn Borough President conducted a survey of all 573 Brooklyn public schools in July 2018, of which 307 responded — a 53.6 percent response rate. Out of the schools that responded, 83.1 percent of respondents said their school did have a dedicated space to use as a gym of which more than half (51.1 percent) indicated their gym space was shared with another school.
“Physical education is not elective. It’s an essential component of developing a child’s full personhood that our school system has not properly prioritized. We cannot allow schools to be using inappropriate space for gym activities. That’s why we must plan for the future by prioritizing the capital funding for every school that needs gym space and renovations,” said Adams.
Additionally, 19 schools stated that they use their cafeteria as a gym while 18 schools reported other spaces for gym uses such as converted classrooms and multipurpose rooms. Other issues reported by respondents included buckling gym floors, gym spaces with large support pillars in them, lack of air conditioning in gym spaces, spaces being multipurpose and limiting, overcrowded buildings with no ability to convert classrooms, padded classrooms, and underserved special needs children who do not have adequate accommodations at their school.
According to the Department of Health, (NYC DOH) one in five kindergarten students, and one in four Head Start children, is obese.
Adams made the announcement inside a converted school space in East Williamsburg utilized as a gym by students from both PS 147 The Isaac Remsen School for Environmental Engineering and Young Women’s Leadership School of Brooklyn, which has been deemed as unsuitable for physical education by members of the community.
“As the council member representing Bushwick, Ridgewood, and Williamsburg, I am very concerned by the lack of gym space in my district schools. Insufficient gym space not only denies students within my district the opportunity to access the transformative power of sports, but speaks to larger issues of the inequitable allocation of resources and funding throughout New York City,” said Reynoso.
Additionally, as part of the report several recommendations to improve infrastructure and programming for physical fitness and interscholastic athletics were outlined including appointing a dedicated, high-level schools ‘sports czar’ within the Department of Education (DOE) or Mayor’s Office who would work with schools across the city to ensure that physical fitness is a priority and that schools have the proper infrastructure and space that they need to have physical education instruction.
“As an advocate for our students and our families, as a product of local sports and physical education programs in Williamsburg, sports is what did it for me,. Being involved and being active, that’s what helped me with my school work, and kept me active and healthy. I believe that the more kids are involved in sports, the better they will be in life. I am an advocate for investing in sports and with an all democratic state legislature this is the time for to invest in schools –upgrades to gyms, upgrades to dual purpose areas and improving facilities so students can be active,” said Torres.
The announcement took place ahead of Monday’s City Council oversight hearing focused on athletics and physical education in the City’s public schools.
