By: Jeremy Selweski | Macomb Township Chronicle | Published July 3, 2013


CLINTON TOWNSHIP/ MACOMB TOWNSHIP — It has been two decades since elementary school students in Chippewa Valley Schools have had daily recess, but a group of parents is hoping to change that.

Led by Amy and Brett Hammer, of Clinton Township, about a dozen district parents appeared before the Board of Education on June 17 to state their case. The Hammers’ 6-year-old daughter, Annalaina, just finished her kindergarten year at Erie Elementary School, and they were concerned when they learned that she and her classmates were not being sent outside for recess on a consistent basis.

“All of our students need to have daily recess,” Brett Hammer said. “It helps them get their energy out and be more prepared to learn. Recess is crucial for kids to unwind and decompress.”

He pointed out that because recess is not a scheduled part of the day at the district’s elementary schools, it is up to the discretion of each individual teacher when to let their students go outside and play. While this means that recess is still offered on many days, Brett Hammer was unhappy that his daughter’s recess was largely dependent on the weather and all but disappeared once the chilly winter months came around.

The parents presented the school board with a petition containing the signatures of about 200 Chippewa Valley parents who support restoring daily recess at the elementary-school level. The Hammers noted that they had already met with their school principal, the Erie PTO, Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education Sue Grenier and Superintendent Ron Roberts to discuss the topic.

“Childhood obesity is extremely damaging, so kids need to have ample physical activity during school hours,” Amy Hammer told the board. “They need to be physically and mentally healthy, and to know that a healthy body leads to a healthy mind. We all just want the best for our children.”

Many other public school districts in Macomb County do offer daily recess, including L’Anse Creuse, Fraser, Utica, Warren Consolidated, Center Line, Lake Shore and South Lake.

According to numerous studies cited by Amy Hammer, the unstructured playtime of recess provides myriad benefits for elementary school students: higher academic achievement, improved fitness, relief from stress and anxiety, increased problem-solving and communication skills, better attentiveness in class, and establishing lifelong habits for health and wellness. She also noted that many educational organizations — such as the National Association of State Boards of Education, the Michigan State Board of Education, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — have extolled the value of daily recess.

Other parents shared their thoughts with the school board, as well. Jennie David stated that she was “appalled” when she discovered that her 6-year-old daughter did not have daily recess. “Physical activity is absolutely essential to our children’s learning,” she said. “This is something that they all want and deserve.”

Fellow parent Tabatha Kraus agreed. “Our daughter needs to have physical activity,” she said. “She is a very hyper young lady, so she needs an outlet to get her energy out.”

Dallas Gordon, an 8-year-old student at Miami Elementary School, was not shy about stepping up to the microphone, either. “Recess helps me think in class,” he said. “It helps me with my education and getting good grades.”

Members of the board stated that they were willing to look into the possibility of bringing daily recess back to Chippewa Valley Schools. Vice President Denise Aquino recalled that the program was eliminated about 20 years ago as a cost-saving measure, but she would like to see if it could be reinstated.

President George Sobah echoed those sentiments. “This is something that I think we all support,” he said. Trustee Andrew Patzert added that he appreciated the parents’ passion for this issue, while Secretary Tammy Reynolds thanked them for the “very respectful way” that they brought their concerns before the board.

In a subsequent interview, Roberts explained that Chippewa Valley Schools eliminated daily recess after the state of Michigan began mandating a specific number of instructional minutes each day for all students and decided that recess did not count toward those minutes unless teachers were the ones outside supervising them. At the time, the district was utilizing recess monitors to watch students while they played outside, but that method proved to be too expensive to maintain. Roberts pointed out that district officials are now seeking a more modern and cost-effective recess model.

“We’re checking to see what each of our elementary schools does (for recess), as well as what other school districts do,” he said. “From that point, we can decide where we want to go next and what we need to do to make this happen. But I can say for sure that if we develop a new plan, it will not be the same as our old one. That’s an older model that’s just not feasible anymore because it’s too expensive to implement.”

The superintendent stated that, should the district decide to bring back daily recess, it would need to be done in a way that does not detract from the number of instructional minutes provided by its elementary schools. According to Roberts, that type of model would be excessively costly because it would require extending the school day.

“It will take us a little while to figure this out,” he said, “but I’m confident that money will not be an obstacle. We may find that this issue is actually an easy one to solve. It’s still very early in the process, but now it’s just a matter of collecting the data and figuring out what our best course of action is. I don’t disagree with these parents that recess is important for keeping kids physically healthy and mentally prepared to learn.”

Amy Hammer just hopes that it doesn’t take too long for the district to arrive at a solution. Her daughter will be heading into first grade this fall, and there’s only so much time left to establish recess as part of her daily school routine.

“She’s at school for almost seven hours a day, and the entire time she is being told what to do by her teachers and by other adults,” Hammer said. “She really needs some unstructured play time to provide a break from all of that organized instruction. Daily recess is a fundamental part of our children’s growth and development, so I think we’re doing them a great disservice by not giving them what they need.”

For more information about the push to establish daily recess in Chippewa Valley Schools, contact Amy and Brett Hammer at cvsrecess20@yahoo.com.