Clarksville moms get more recess time for students, work to take efforts statewide

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A group of Clarksville moms are celebrating a win after negotiating with local school officials to secure half-hour recesses for all elementary school students in the district.

Now, the group, “Say YES to RECESS Tennessee,” is working to take their efforts statewide.

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“Our county had 20 minutes, but it was being taken away as punishment. They were counting the time walking to and from lunch and dropping their things off in the classroom,” said group member Morgan Garner.

Garner has been advocating alongside other Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools moms for nearly two years. Leaders of the effort, also known as “The Recess Moms,” said that they think adding as little as 10 or 15 minutes to recess time is beneficial. Their ultimate goal is to see two 30-minute recesses daily, with one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

“I want it to be seen as recess is learning, and it’s helping every other area in the classroom,” said member Rachel Bush. “There was a county in Texas that increased their recess to an hour. In the first year after doing that, their math scores went up 10 percent and their reading went up seven percent. It drastically affects everything they’re doing.”

The Recess Moms would also like to see unstructured, physical activity time added for middle school students. For bad weather days, they would still like to find ways to get kids out of their normal classrooms and moving around.

“I think we should also highlight this would be screen-free time. So, screens are contributing to what is being called a mental health epidemic right now with these age groups,” said Recess Mom Kathryn Truman.

The group is now working with the governor’s office to take their efforts across the state.

Say YES to RECESS! leaders are currently looking for other parents across the state to help advocate for more recess time in other counties.

“These kids need peer-to-peer interactions, they need to fight on the playground a little bit and sort things out instead of just getting on their phones and sending nasty messages to each other,” Garner said. “We were told we couldn’t get 30 minutes, that it wasn’t feasible and now we have 30 minutes and so we’re going to take it to the state and keep pushing.”

Anyone interested in spearheading similar efforts in their district is encouraged to reach out to group leaders through their Facebook page.

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Chief Communications Officer Anthony Johnson with CMCSS provided the following Q&A to News 2 on this topic:

•           What new changes are coming to CMCSS schools this year for recess time? What ages will be impacted by this change?

Through a collaborative effort with engaged parent volunteers, elementary recess time will increase to 30 minutes per day in CMCSS, beginning the 2024-2025 school year.

•           How are CMCSS schools able to make more time for recess?

Although the state and federal requirements and academic expectations for each school are consistent, each school’s schedule is unique. School administration worked with their leadership teams and educators to make modifications to existing schedules to increase recess time while still adhering to curriculum and service requirements such as RTI, high-dosage tutoring, state-required teacher planning time, special education services, arts, literacy blocks, etc.

•           How has CMCSS partnered with parents (Rachel Bush, Morgan Garner, Kathryn Truman) to make these changes? What has that partnership looked like?

CMCSS’ Directors of Elementary Schools, Jessica Harris and Amanda Nicks, have appreciated the collaboration on this initiative. The group of moms, respectfully called “The Recess Moms,” have been great advocates and thought partners on opportunities to increase recess within the challenges and time constraints of state and federal requirements and expectations. Mrs. Harris and Mrs. Nicks look forward to continued collaboration with them.

•           Will these recess times remain the same in the coming future? Are they expected to increase or decrease?

School administrators, district leaders, and parent and community partners will continue to evaluate the efforts to increase recess time and identify opportunities for improvement. There is no district expectation to decrease recess time and district leadership supports the efforts of school administrators to feasibly increase physical activity and healthy school environments in their schools.

•           How does CMCSS enforce the following law (according to the aforementioned TN Board of Education): “Physical activity shall not be withheld from a student as punishment.” Many parents have reported that their students have had their recess/physical activity taken away as punishment. How does CMCSS safeguard this law to ensure this doesn’t continue to happen?

In accordance with CMCSS’ Coordinated School Health policy and guidelines, “Teachers and other school and community personnel will not use physical activity (e.g., running laps, pushups) or withhold opportunities for physical activity (e.g., recess, physical education) as punishment.” If a parent/guardian is aware of this policy being violated, they should contact their child’s teacher or school administration.

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