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Howell Parents Inspire School Recess Bill
By Keith Hagarty
Wanting their children to receive mandatory recess time every school day, a group of township parents repeatedly approached the township board of education last year to see what could be done.
Soon, lawmakers took notice.
Pointing to their concerns as a motivating factor, Assemblyman Joseph Malone III, R-30, is sponsoring a state Assembly bill to establish a task force on public school student recess.
If adopted, New Jersey would become the ninth state to have a recess policy. At the present time, only California, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin have enacted such a measure.
The idea for the task force came partly in response to Howell's ongoing debate of whether there should be mandatory recess time set aside each school day.
Last September, several parents in the district repeatedly went before the board asking why there was a noticeable lack of structured recess time in the schools.
To address the situation, the board placed Susan Vonsover, the district's assistant superintendent for pupil services, and Patricia Callender, supervisor of special education, in charge of heading up a special recess committee comprised of parents, administrators, teachers and the district's head nurse.
With the backing of Howell Superintendent of Schools Dr. Enid Golden, the committee met on September 17 with the goal of finding common ground on the issue. They presented their findings to the board in November, ultimately establishing a set of recess guidelines, and recommending 20 minutes of recess time every school day.
"The meeting was three hours long, and everyone in the room agreed that recess is a pivotal part of the school day," Vonsover said. "It's very important for children to have recess, and we believe we should strive to have recess in our schools everyday."
The committee unanimously established a set of guidelines governing recess for every classroom in the district.
According to the guidelines: 1) a minimum of 20 minutes of engaged play as close to mid-day as possible, 2) children should go outside for recess with age-appropriate peers, 3) children would be allowed to play outside as long as it's at least 35-degrees or as determined by the building administrator, 4) recess is not to be used as a reward or punishment, 5) students will not be denied recess for more than five minutes for behavioral issues, however, if behavioral issue persist, parents would be notified if the building administrator determines that recess should be denied, and 6) students will not be denied recess for inability to complete assignments.
While the Assembly bill for the recess task force was introduced on January 8, it must still go before the Assembly Education Committee for further review before it can be voted on.
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