LANCASTER, Pa. — Editor's note: The above video is from August 26.
Update, Aug. 30: Thomas Wharton Elementary School is changing its schedule for the second time this school year after parents pushed back against a district wide decision to reduce recess times.
On Thursday, Principal Demettra Welters sent an email to parents which FOX43 obtained from a family in the school district. "The school district is giving me the latitude to reevaluate our master schedule to restore lost recess time for students," Welters wrote in the email.
According to the email, these changes are expected to be completed within the next two weeks.
While school board officials say the original decision to reduce recess times was district-wide and consistent across all elementary schools some parents, like Sonja Crafts, are worried that not all schools will make the adjustment back to a full 30-minute recess.
“In some areas of the city where the children who live there are living predominantly in apartment buildings, where they don’t even have the small city backyards so outdoor time at school might be their only opportunity to get outdoors and just run around for the whole day," said Crafts.
According to Crafts, Wharton Elementary has been responsive to parental concerns on the issue and encourages other members of the school district to speak out if they have concerns about their student's recess times.
The school board will hold a meeting on September 24 at Lincoln Middle School on Lehigh Avenue to answer questions about its new recess policy.
Previously:
For students like Hugo Driscoll, recess is a time to connect with friends and get some energy out. But when Driscoll returned to Thomas Wharton Elementary School this year, a new schedule means he has less time for the games that he loves.
Driscoll said, "In kickball I only get like three kicks...before I got like 10 or 11.”
This new schedule from the School District of Lancaster involves cutting recess time across all schools by 10 minutes, which parents say will impact their education.
Hugo's dad, Will Driscoll, said, "Its hard to justify keeping kids still for that long.”
According to the CDC, recess is helpful for more than just exercise. Getting their energy out on the playground can help students concentrate and remember information better in the classroom as well as gives them an opportunity to build social skills with their peers.
And with these schedule changes, Sonja Crafts, a parent, said her student doesn't get that break until the end of the day.
"His recess is only from 2:15 to 2:35 which is right before the school day ends, so he doesn't really get a lot of outdoor time during the school day," she said.
The CDC recommends that students have at least 20 minutes of recess time during the school day, and while SDOL schools are still in compliance with this recommended amount, parents say it is now falling on them to ensure their kids are getting the exercise they need to get their energy out.
For Crafts, that means meeting up with parents and their kids after school and letting their kids play on the playground more.
She said, "I'm making it more of a priority to come here after school to get a little more socializing time and time outside," using this time as her lunch break to ensure her child gets what he needs.
Adam Aurand, director of strategic communication for SDOL, said this reduction was made, "In order to ensure consistent instructional time for reading, math, science and social studies, as well as a social emotional learning time. We recognize the importance of unstructured play to child development and offer approximately 20 minutes of recess time per day, which is consistent with other elementary schools in the county."
But Crafts says this is not a step in the right direction.
“You want to establish a love of learning and a love of school, and when you do things like reducing the time where they’re having fun in the place of more structured learning, they're probably not enjoying it as much...and that's going to have repercussions down the line," Crafts said.
SDOL students went back to school on Aug. 20, but parents weren't notified of this schedule change. Instead they found out when their students returned home from school, some with a printed version of the schedule and others who just told them about the change. Parents at Thomas Wharton Elementary say the school has been responsive to their questions, but the decision has not yet been reversed.
And while parents want their concerns to be taken into consideration, so do the students.
Hugo said, "I still think kids should have the right to have more recess and run around...It's kind of like the state, most of the things are up to the people, so I think it should be up to the kids.”