Following a survey sent out to students in March 2025 and related discussion with Macdonald High School and Wilcox High School, the SCHS PE department will be offering new weightlifting and dance courses for the 2026-2027 school year.
Physical education teacher Michelle Bumbaca shared that once a course is officially added to the course catalog for the district, high schools can choose whether or not they would like to offer students that class. Bumbaca believes the final decisions are made based on what would be the most attractive to students.
“That survey was very helpful, and most of our students picked dance or weight training. We saw a little for the rackets, which is why we didn’t go for racket sports, but I think that they’d be popular here, too,” Bumbaca said. “We have decided as a team to start with our two and see how those go.”
Currently, physical education options are limited to PE Core 9 for freshmen, PE, Athletics PE and Unified PE. Despite the options for students’ second year of PE, Athletics is reserved for athletes on campus and Unified requires approval from teachers. Bumbaca hopes that broadening classes for students will motivate them to take advantage of opportunities, including using the weightroom for the weightlifting class.
“We have seen such a large interest in other students wanting to take advantage of our weight room,” Bumbaca said. “You’re working pretty much with a coach that knows what they’re talking about, and they’re able to teach you in a smaller environment like a personal trainer.”
Bumbaca believes the inclusion of dance will be inviting for students who are interested in expressing themselves visually or enjoy dancing.
“Right now, it’s separated into four categories: modern, contemporary, jazz and then the first one is just fundamentals like motor skills,” Bumbaca said. “We have some flexibility in terms of what we can do, but I’m sure once we get the students in there, we can help drive that to student-driven instruction, as I like to say.”
Many hope the new courses will attract students outside of those needing PE subject credits. Academic counselor Oscar Martinez noted that although the new exemption rules frees athletes of the requirement to take a second year of PE, he still believes the elective choices are valuable classes students should not dismiss.
“The sports exemption might be a hurdle because it allows students who are currently completing a sport to bypass a semester or year of PE, but it still shouldn’t demotivate students from taking a PE class. I still encourage students to take a PE class because I can’t tell you how important it is to stay active,” Martinez said. “Even if you’re exempted, you still have to complete your elective credits anyways, so these classes outside of finishing your subject credit of PE, you’re still able to get elective credits.”
Some upperclassmen are unable to take advantage of the new classes, such as senior Lexie Schneider, who believes she would have chosen a new PE course over other electives.
“If it wasn’t regular PE and was something like dance, which sounds fun, I would have taken it over something like photography,” Schneider said. “In-classroom classes can be more boring, and PE gives you a chance to have a break.”
Schneider took PE for four years, including Athletics PE, and hopes that in future, more diverse PE classes will be added to help athletes train specific skills or for specific sports.
“For example, I play soccer, so playing games like frisbee wasn’t very helpful for my sport,” Schneider said. “Maybe if I had weightlifting or drills or a unit of soccer would have been nice so I could get more training in.”
Classes that are tailored to specific sports or skills could give more opportunities to students to preview how it feels joining a sport on campus without the full commitment.
“Not everyone does a sport, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t like being physically active, and not everyone wants to just weightlift. They want to dance or do activities that have a different physical education experience,” Martinez said.
There is currently no specific teacher assigned to teach the new courses due to the right sizing in the SCUSD, which poses a challenge for the PE department to promote joining the classes.
“We’re struggling a little to promote the classes without a teacher attached to it. Some students, as you guys know, sign up for certain classes because of the person who’s teaching it. I feel like that’s kind of been our struggle with these new electives. We don’t have the space to say, ‘Hey, I’m teaching dance!’” Bumbaca said.
Bumbaca encouraged students to take advantage of new PE options and looks forward to seeing the impact that more elective opportunities will have on teachers and students alike.
“If one or two students take dance that maybe they didn’t take before, or one or two new students try weight training, then it will have been worth it. It’s a win-win, everyone gets to do everything and get credit,” Bumbaca said. “For students, you might not be into the arts or music, so those electives can limit you too. It’ll be nice to see what we get next year.”