STOW: The Stow Teachers Association has ratified a contract with the district for the upcoming school year, according to Ohio Education Association spokeswoman Michele Prater.
Union members met Wednesday afternoon at Stow-Munroe Falls High School to discuss and vote on a tentative agreement of the negotiated contract.
Stow-Munroe Falls schools spokeswoman Jacquie Mazziotta and board member Rod Armstrong confirmed the meeting was held, however, they said they could provide no additional details.
Calls to STA President Deb Pauley and Superintendent Russell Jones were not returned.
Prater said she could not disclose specific details of the contract because it is not official until the Stow-Munroe Falls Board of Education gives its approval.
The next school board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Aug. 26 at the high school.
Also at that meeting, administrators, teachers and parents are expected to continue to discuss an issue that has caused a stir in the district: the Board of Education’s decision to reduce physical education class time in order to add Spanish to the curriculum.
On June 27, the board voted 4-1 to reduce physical education from two 40-minute classes per week to a single 50-minute class for third- and fourth-graders, beginning this school year.
Board approval came with the hiring of two certified/classified Spanish teachers. Karen Wright, Karen Powers, Dick Spangler and Fred Bonacci voted for the agenda item; Armstrong casting the dissenting vote.
Armstrong said he had some concerns about eliminating physical education and noted that he has yet to use the Spanish he learned during his high school days.
“I’ll tell you what I did use: my physical education classes,” he said during the June meeting. “I did use what I learned there. I did use the teamwork that I learned from the games that we played. That I did use.”
At the July meeting, several parents and school employees voiced their opposition to the decision as well.
“It’s an issue, a very significant issue,” said Julie Dietrich, Riverview Elementary PTA president. “If you go online and search the reduction of P.E. in school districts, you would be amazed at the statistics. I could stand here for two weeks and tell you the importance of P.E. to children.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children, and tripled in adolescents, over the past three decades.
The CDC also reports that regular physical activity in childhood and adolescence improves strength and endurance, helps build healthy bones and muscles, helps control weight, reduces anxiety and stress, increases self-esteem and might improve blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
Carla Cugini, who has taught physical education in the district for 16 years, said her teaching role would change dramatically, as classes have been reduced for students in kindergarten through fourth grade.
“This is our livelihood. This is what we believe in,” she said of her fellow physical education instructors. “It’s like a kick in the gut because they are telling us that we can do without this and that language is more important than our health.
“We can speak a language fluently, but being overweight is going to kill us. The ability to speak a language is not going to save us when it comes to that.”
Jones, the superintendent, said he supports the idea of students being taught a foreign language at a young age.
“We are thrilled to be able to offer a foreign language thread for all of our students from grades 3 through 12,” Jones said in an emailed statement. “Countries around the world provide the opportunity for their children to learn a second, and sometimes a third language from early primary school.”
Stow-Munroe Falls will be able to provide this program without additional staff by replacing retiring teachers. The result will be no additional cost to the district, administrators said.
According to the U.S. Committee on Economic Development, 21 of the top 25 industrialized countries begin the study of world languages in grades K-5, while the majority of U.S. students begin studying a second language at age 14, or around seventh grade. While 80 percent of student in Europe speak at least two languages, only 14 percent of U.S. students consider themselves bilingual.
Jones said studies show that learning a second language also enhances one’s ability to expertly learn their native tongue.
“Students will still be engaged in physical education weekly and [at] recess on a daily basis,” Jones said. “In the seven-plus years I have been superintendent in Stow, many parents have approached me about the necessity for our students to learn a second language throughout their experience in our district. That vision has now become reality.”