USD 257 has no district-wide policy regulating recesses in elementary schools, and doesn’t need one, board member concluded Monday night.
Amanda Pollock, a Lincoln Elementary mom, questioned whether district elementaries had enough recess time, a topic fleshed out in an April 12 Register story. She said a morning recess, along with a lunch break and physical education class every other day weren’t enough.
Principals from the three schools — Lincoln, Jefferson and McKinley — said time away from the classroom totaled more than Pollock mentioned and the Register reported.
Larry Hart, Lincoln principal, said grades one through five have minimum recesses of 25 minutes, plus lunch breaks and physical education classes.
Teachers have latitude to increase recess time and “some days they may go over” what is allotted, he said. “I feel they (students and teachers) have ample time” away from the rigors of formal education.
“Teachers do a good job” of deciding when students need a break, he added. “When they see they’re ‘losing’ a class, they have students get up and get moving.”
Principal Brad Crusinbery at Jefferson said grades kindergarten through third had a minimum of two recesses on days when they didn’t report for physical education and first- and second-graders had three recesses on non-PE days. Third-graders have two recesses.
Fourth- and fifth-graders have one recess, but “periodically they earn a second recess at the end of the day,” he said.
At McKinley, where kindergarten through third-grades classes meet daily, all grades have a morning recess or PE class, a 15-minute break attached to 30 minutes out of class for lunch and an afternoon recess, Principal Lori Maxwell said.
All three principals said they opposed a hard-and-fast policy.
An ironclad schedule could interrupt the flow of learning in the classroom, Crusinbery said.
“Better to let teachers decide,” he said.
“Kids need different motivation,” said board member Mark Burris. “We haven’t had a policy and I don’t see that we need one now.”
Other board members agreed.
