Students took it upon themselves to speak up during a recent District 97 School Board meeting in an effort to bring back their 15-minute physical activity time that was reduced at some schools.
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Annie Stark was one of four students that spoke during public comments at the Sept. 22 meeting urging the board to bring back the free time.
Stark, a fifth-grade student at Whittier Elementary School in Oak Park, started a petition and collected over 140 signatures from other students as well as teachers and parents.
“Recess is essential because some kids can’t sit through the long period of time before or after lunch without running around because they need to move their bodies to calm their bodies,” Stark said.
Students from other schools in the district also started their own petition and garnered over 100 signatures.
The recess reduction was implemented as a way to make more time for the new English Language Arts program that was incorporated into the curriculum last school year and the new math program that came this year, said Amanda Siegfried, D97’s senior director of communications and engagement.
Illinois requires 30 minutes of unstructured recess everyday, which is still being met in District 97, she said. Physical education three times per week is required by the state, though the district has operated under a state-approved waiver for several years where there is a PE class taught either once a week for 60 minutes or twice a week for 30 minutes, with the addition of 15 minutes of what the district calls physical education activity (PEA) to help meet that three-day a week requirement for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
A guidance letter went out to district staff members noting the change at the beginning of the school year. The first district-wide communication came during the meeting from Terri Bresnahan, the district’s superintendent, which was followed by an update that was sent to parents through a D97 Board Highlights newsletter following the Sept. 22 board meeting.
Bresnahan said she heard the concerns of the community during the meeting and is looking at the curriculum.
Instructional minutes are not a board decision, Bresnahan said, but the curriculum was approved by the board as they were “made in response to our growing demands for the academic needs of our curriculum.”
“We are in the process of evaluating our instructional minutes, including those recess minutes,” Bresnahan said. “We’ve discovered that we have lots of different practices happening across different grade levels and across our schools. We gathered as a leadership team to really better understand what our practices are and as well, what are those competing needs in terms of instructional minutes in making sure kids do get what they need.”
Some schools didn’t experience change and still have daily 15-minute physical activity time, while others reduced the time.
Last year, students in kindergarten through fifth grade at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in Oak Park had the 15 minute recess five days a week, Siegfried said. This year students in kindergarten through second grade still have daily activity time, while students in third through fifth grade only have it once a week.
“The practice is varied from every school,” Siegfried said, as the principals from each of the eight elementary schools in the district are responsible for making their own building schedules, taking into account considerations that are unique to each of their schools, such as staffing, enrollment and space.
“We know learning is important, but we also need time to play, talk to our friends, get fresh air and take a break,” a fifth grade student from Lincoln Elementary told the board. “When we get to be kids, we can come back to our class ready to learn and focus.”
Teachers get “frustrated” at students when they aren’t “focused” or “at their best” due to the lack of play time that helps them reset, the student said.
District leaders met with the elementary school principals and continued conversations with teacher representatives during an Education Council meeting on Sept. 28, which was a “positive discussion,” Siegfried said.
A plan to move forward with a working group with representatives from the elementary schools at various grade levels to hear different perspectives about the scheduling is in the works with other updates to come at a future date, Siegfried said.
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