Anchorage schools eliminate elementary health teachers, shift to integrated model

Anchorage School District will eliminate dedicated elementary health teachers next school year and fold health lessons into reading, physical education, and social-emotional learning classes.

The change follows board cuts to elementary specials that eliminated 27.5 art and music positions and about 20 health and PE specialists, a board member said during a work session. The Anchorage School Board approved a 2026–27 budget in February that cuts more than 500 staff positions, including over 300 teachers, and closes three elementary schools.

How health will be taught

Kindergarten through third grade students will receive health instruction through the Core Knowledge Language Arts reading curriculum, which includes units on the five senses, nutrition, and body systems. Teachers read the material aloud, so students who struggle with reading can still engage, a district administrator said. More than 90 percent of K-3 classrooms already use the curriculum.

Fourth and fifth grade teachers will teach units on human growth and development and substance abuse prevention using existing Great Body Shop materials. The district will train those teachers on the units, which were part of grade-level instruction before Anchorage adopted dedicated health teachers.

Physical education classes will increase from 90 minutes to 100 minutes weekly and will cover seasonal awareness, hypothermia, environmental safety, body mechanics, and nutrition. Social-emotional learning blocks will continue using Second Step or Connected and Respected curricula, covering empathy and bullying prevention.

Counselors and school leadership teams will ensure Safe Children's Act lessons are taught. The district has mapped all state standards to show teachers where health content appears across reading, PE, science, and social studies.

Concerns about the shift

Board member Margo Bellamy said the reading curriculum, adopted for literacy, may not meet the board's own 2024 policy defining health education as merit-based and evidence-based rather than piecemeal. She suggested the Governance Committee work with administration to reconcile the policy with the new model.

Another board member said the curriculum team faced an impossible task implementing the model without pilot testing or a task force to develop goals. The biggest risk is finding time to train fourth and fifth grade teachers, though the administrator said offering compensated training sessions during and after school hours would reach all teachers.

The district will survey staff to identify gaps as the model is implemented. The biggest concern will likely be time, as teachers already face too much to teach in the available minutes each day, the administrator said.