School Board Expected to Restore Recess
(Tacoma) News Tribune – August 28, 2008
By Kris Sherman
Tacoma's kids need to exercise their bodies as well as their brains during the school day, so recess is expected to be back on the schedule at all the city's elementaries when school begins next week. The School Board is scheduled to discuss a new policy during its meeting tonight and likely will vote on it next month.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Tacoma School District headquarters, 601 S. Eighth St., Tacoma. Public comment will be taken.
Superintendent Art Jarvis, who developed the policy at the request of the board, expects it will be implemented. Unstructured play time is an important part of a child's development, he says.
In recent years, the 29,000-student school district's stance was to allow principals and teachers to decide whether to give students a morning or afternoon recess in addition to the play time kids get at lunch. Some did, most didn't.
Many educators worried an additional recess stole valuable time from the crucial business of teaching kids how to read, write and do math.
School Board members, after studying the matter, decided recess needed to be back in the schedule. Kids' physical fitness is a concern, they said.
"I think there is great justification for recess," Jarvis said this week.
"Kids need a break" from their studies, he added.
There are valid reasons why adults have breaks built into their work days. Kids need them, too, Jarvis said. He acknowledged that some people hold concerns about the possibility of bullying or taunting taking place in school yards and said that school officials will be monitoring recess for safety.
"Yes, bullying can occur on the playground," he said. "We will be supervising - and we'll be teaching" proper behavior and social skills as circumstances dictate, he added.
The policy likely to be approved by the board next month – board members already have said they favor it – mentions childhood obesity as a prime reason for ringing that recess bell.
Besides getting kids moving, recess contributes to development of skills "in conflict resolution, leadership, social interaction and group play," the policy says.
Leaders and teachers at each school will decide how and when to schedule recess. There is an out for certain circumstances. The policy uses phrases like "to every extent appropriate" elementary students should have a "daily opportunity for recess in addition to the daily lunch/recess period."
Jarvis and his staff are to provide the guidelines for how recess will be used and supervised.
It will be easier to fit into kids' schedules in the school year that begins next Wednesday because elementary students will be on campus 30 minutes longer each day than last year. The elementary school day was lengthened from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. last year to 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. this year.
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