Other than the three new construction sights on campus this year and the average change of new teachers, schedules, and friends, there has been one specific change affecting the youngest demographic at Berkeley High School.
Beginning this 2026-27 school year, the school district is starting to integrate mandatory ninth grade Physical Education (PE) classes into schedules. Current ninth graders — the class of 2030 — are required to take a PE class unless they have a PE waiver. Freshmen do not have a wide variety of elective options like other BHS students who can choose from classes like badminton, soccer, and dance.
Instead, freshmen must take a new class called PE 1. This PE 1 class is an introduction to physical education, focused on power, movement, efficiency, and athletic safety, and is the sole class offered to the ninth grade for PE credit.
This year is the first step in the transition that BHS is making due to its shortcomings regarding the California physical education requirements. In order to ensure that students are satisfying these requirements, the district has a plan to change the PE classes required per year.
The one roadblock for the immediate switch is the small number of physical education instructors at BHS. Currently there are only four full time employees in the PE department, and with the current group of freshmen having a class of 550 plus students, there simply aren’t enough teachers to give everyone a class. Next school year, administrators are taking steps towards adding more staff to the PE department.
“We are definitely going to be hiring more PE teachers,” Tonia Coleman, BHS’ executive vice principal, said.
Many freshmen now are able to opt out of PE 1 through doing a school sport or outside PE waiver. Although the full PE rule hasn’t been fully implemented, it has already been affecting many student’s decision to play on BHS teams. BHS freshman Ishan Bui is taking PE 1 as a zero period. Bui is unsure on whether he is participating in a BHS sports in addition to his PE class. He played volleyball and was captain of his school’s team when he was in eighth grade. But for Bui, the choice to not go out for sports is about a timing issue, as he wakes up early every day for PE and is less interested in afterschool sports. In addition, completing PE credits through the PE 1 class adds to his disinterest.
He says that in hindsight, he would have rather completed his PE credit outside of class, “I feel like if I could go back, I would do a sport now, instead (of PE 1),” Bui said.
After this transition year is over, freshmen will be required to take PE 1 and not have an option to opt out. This eliminates the opportunity to have a Berkeley sport act as a PE exemption, and could minimize motives for 9th graders to join school sports.
This could bring the size of freshman-only teams down, and specifically affect Berkeley’s no-cut sports, which already have a smaller number of students showing up to tryouts.
On the other hand, freshmen like Olivia Ward, a BHS varsity water polo player, would still play for their high school sport regardless of whether or not they had to be in a PE 1. Ward has been playing water polo for a really long time and describes it as a pivotal part of her life.
“I love to play water polo, and water polo makes me happy,” Ward said.
She feels that the freshmen next year being obligated to take PE would be inconvenient and unnecessary. “I would have been frustrated (to take PE) because I feel like it takes up a lot of time,” Ward said, “It would be a waste of resources to force kids who are already working out into doing PE.” Despite this, she says that she would still play water polo alongside PE.
As the PE rule is fully instated at BHS, there are a few routes the BHS sports team turnouts could take. Future freshman students will decide whether they want to try out for sports out of dedication and passion or if they opt out due to a crammed class schedule and already earning credits through a mandatory PE class.