Following a policy change that allowed freshman athletes to be exempted from taking a physical education course, reduction in demand for P.E. classes has led to the elimination of Dance P.E.

Historically, Oak Park freshmen were required to enroll in a traditional physical education class, whether or not the student was on a sports team during his first year. The rule changed in November 2015, when the board approved a shift in P.E. requirements for freshman athletes, leading to lower demand for P.E. classes.

“[Freshmen] can claim an exemption from P.E. during the season of sport they are competing,” Buchanan wrote in an email. “Therefore, fewer freshmen are taking P.E.”

The Dance P.E. class was the first to be cut due to seniority rules regarding layoffs in California.

“The seniority rules in the collective bargaining agreement requires that the least senior teachers be released first,” principal Kevin Buchanan wrote. “Because Dance is primarily a P.E. class, and the Dance teacher is the least senior, that’s where the reduction in staffing will be applied.”

The reduction in staff was an unintended consequence, if not an unforeseeable one. During part of the decision-making process surrounding the change in P.E. requirements, school site council was called to a vote on the issue.

The teachers on the council realized the implication of the new relaxed requirements.

“Teachers independent of each other made that connection — we connected the dots individually that this could affect staffing,” site council member and union representative Catherine Lory said. “That vote to change the graduation requirement — all three teachers [on site council] voted no on it.”

Oak Park High School’s school site council comprises five students, five parents, a principal, a counselor and three teachers. Despite the three teachers voting no, there were still enough votes for the council to accept the proposal.

By March, it was clear that there were fewer students taking P.E.

“I was called into the office to get a pink slip, which is something teachers are given by March 15th if there’s [possibly] not a job for them next year,” Dance P.E. teacher Kristin Atkins said. “And at that time [I was told] that there was enough kids signed up for three dance classes for next year, which is what I currently have.”

For Dance P.E., classes needed to be cut despite healthy enrollment.

“Because [other teachers] have seniority over me, [the administration] just took all of my kids that signed up for dance and are moving them to the other P.E. teacher’s classes,” Atkins said.

Under current California rules, more senior teachers have priority in keeping full-time employment.

“The number of years you have been here you go up the seniority ladder, you climb the seniority ladder,” union representative Russell Peters said. “Because you have more longevity here at the school, it gives you more longevity, and that gives you more protection to be riffed less — or last.”

“Riffed,” which comes from the phrase “reduction in force,” refers to the layoff of a teacher due to reductions in staff.

The school district, provided it has a valid reason to initiate the reduction in staff, is able to lay off even tenured teachers — such as Atkins, who said she was with the school for 10 years.

“[Tenured teachers] can be dismissed, but it’s much more difficult to then dismiss a teacher who has tenure,” union representative Russell Peters said. “If the enrollment goes down in the school and you have tenured teachers, the tenured teachers can be laid off, or not brought back, if the numbers don’t justify it.”

March 15, which teachers sometimes jokingly call “the Ides of March,” is the last date for a teacher to be notified of any potential reduction in employment. As a result, Lory said, some teachers are riffed every year.

“Over the course between March 15 and the end of the school year, numbers change,” Lory said. “March 15 is [when] the lowest number [of classes is offered].”

Atkins, though, cannot afford this uncertainty. She turned down an offer to teach a single dance class next year.

“I have a family to support,” Atkins said. “When I first started here 10 years ago I had one class … I can’t go back to that 10, 11 years later.”

With Atkins’ departure, the future of the dance program at Oak Park High School is unclear.

“The dance team will happen if they can find someone to hire who is qualified,” Atkins said. “There is always the possibility that if they don’t find someone, there is no dance team next year.”