This is the 938th time we’ve used this image of these Lowell Elementary kids. They are now grown and sporting amazing mustaches (Image: CHS)
Seattle Public School students, you better eat fast. 15 minutes into your 30-minute lunch period, a bell is going to ring. And the Seattle School Board has one question for your — do you want to play or finish eating?
Concerned parents have formed a Lunch and Recess Matters group to push for fair lunch and recess periods for Seattle kids.
“It really has become a choice between eating lunches or talking to friends because that is the only time they get to socialize,” Deb Escher, one of the group’s members said.
Parents feel that the school district’s own policy is not being followed. Jana Robbins whose kids go to Leschi Elementary said, “My kids say if I stand in line for lunch I won’t have time to eat.” Four years ago, she says, Leschi Elementary had a 30 minute recess. Today kids have 20.
“Meal periods shall be long enough for students to socialize,” the lunch policy of Seattle Public Schools states. “A minimum of ten minutes are provided to eat breakfast and twenty minutes to eat lunch with an additional time as appropriate for standing in line.”
The Seattle Public Schools has said that the instructional periods and bus schedules are some of the reasons why the lunch and recess periods are getting shortened.
“We are not getting straightforward answers,” Escher said.
UPDATE 9:25 AM: Seattle Public Schools sent along the following statement about our report. Our initial questions to SPS were referred to Seattle School Board members but CHS did not hear back from the board:
The first part of the story makes it sound as if at every school a bell rings after 15 minutes (and that is simply to signify the start of the next lunch). That happens at one school: Whittier. Deb Escher, who you quoted, is a mother of children at Whittier and we have had meetings with her explaining the breakdown at that school.
The concerns at Leschi Elementary have been resolved with some rearranging of the school day. That parent, Jana Robbins, is who started the recess petition.
The schools are in compliance with the 20 minute board policy for lunch.
Nov 5, is a regularly scheduled board meeting.
So far, the group has received strong support from parents. “We are a group of concerned parents but we have never been able to mobilize like this,” Escher said.
The group grew to almost six hundred members in a week. A meeting with the school board is scheduled for November 5, 2014 at the John Stafford Center for Educational Excellence.
“This is something that needs to go to legislature because it is not just Seattle public schools,” Escher said.
But don’t get too excited, kids. Some parents have suggested one solution for making more time that you might not like — making the school day longer.
You can learn more on the Lunch and Recess Matter Facebook group.
Awesome caption :)
Our version of stock photography!
Thank you Sumedha for bringing these issues to light!
I am confounded by the SPS response. So, I’d like to clear a few things up.
1. I don’t know what they mean by issues at Leschi being resolved by changing the schedule around. There has been no schedule shifting this academic year to my knowledge to accommodate for adequate lunch or recess times. They must be referring to the fact that last year our school had 15 minute lunch and this year it has 20 minutes. However, last year our students had 30 minutes total recess in the day, and this year the vast majority have only 20 minutes. So with a 5 minute increase in lunch, came a 10 minute decrease in recess. Lunch and Recess should not be lumped together. One does not count toward the other, nor should one be penalized by the other.
2. Even though Leschi Elementary has 20 minutes now for lunch, that still does not meet the district guidelines of 20 minutes to eat/socialize PLUS adequate time to get through the lunch line. Leschi Elementary is a Title 1 school with a high-number of free and reduced lunch students. Even the hot lunch students deserve and are promised to have 20 minutes of sitting, socializing and eating time.
3. SPS responds as if these are only concerns of Whittier and Leschi parents. Our Facebook group and recess petition already have over 700 members from across the district. These reduced recess and lunch times are a problem at nearly every school in our district, and most starkly in low-income areas. SPS needs to understand that this is a district-wide issue that needs acknowledgement and support from the highest levels. Schools clearly need more guidance and support in how to successfully implement lunch and recess. With NO district recess policy it is too easy for this important time of the day to be cut. Our children have a right to recess and a right to play…and more than a right, they NEED it. They need it in order to be successful in the classroom.
SPS, please take this issue very seriously. Re-convene the Wellness Committee Task Force to address the lack of compliance with current lunch and P.E. guidelines, and work to establish clear recess guidelines. And more than create guidelines, find out the obstacles for schools in implementation and work to remove those obstacles. These are problems that can and must be solved for the physical, social, mental, behavioral, nutritional, and academic health of our children. Research is clear on that.
The Seattle Public Schools comment in this article is baffling and 100% false, as we have never been granted a meeting on this topic with the district. While I was among Whittier parents who discussed the issue with our school principal after a PTA meeting in September, the issue was clearly out of her hands and we were referred to Jon Halfaker, Executive Director of Schools in the NE region, at the district-level. Our two requests for a meeting with Mr. Halfaker have not been granted, and we found his email reply vague, false (still stating Whittier had a 30-minute lunch time, when it does NOT, by any measure), and non-responsive.
No meeting has been ever taken place with the district, and it’s disturbing to see the district trying to position this as an issue limited to few schools–when it in fact affects many Seattle Schools. In fact, our group’s main concern is for the Seattle schools with very high free & reduced lunch participation and longer lunch lines!
We have copied the SPS District Ombudsman on all our communications with Mr. Halfaker and it appears it’s time to escalate–and get parents from more schools involved. We hope our Seattle School Board members will also get involved to help us solve this district-wide issue when we bring it to the board meeting November 5th. Please join our Lunch & Recess Matter Facebook group and also join us at the SPS Board meeting November 5th 4 – 8PM (public comment at 5PM). The only way this will change is if ALL Seattle Schools and parents unite on finding a solution to put Seattle Schools in *true* compliance with state law around wellness policies for minimum lunch and recess times.
What is up with the whiny parents these days? Seriously, back in my suburban Seattle grade school days (2 decades ago) most parents would have supported the school even if they had completely eliminated recess and made lunch 10 minutes long. Their solution would have been to tell us to eat faster. Parents (even my very liberal ones) always defaulted to the school’s point of view on trivial matters like recess and lunchtime…at least that’s how it felt.
And back in your days you had to walk 20 miles, uphill in snow. Cool story gramps. It’s well known that in 1994 we solved all educational issues, and we’ve had a perfect system ever since.
I’m not saying that kids these days have it easy, and we “had to walk 20 miles uphill in the snow”…pretty much the opposite. I thought school was fun and easy, and even though we were expected to do things and learn, it never felt particularly arduous. Is elementary school such drudgery these days that the parents need to become such micro managing advocates, or are the adult types just more persnickety?
Everyone I ever met born before 1984 had a significantly longer lunch and recess at school. We had a half hour for each and another half hour for second recess. Those were also called teacher planning periods and they were used as such. Everyone was satisfied.
David, the issue is that it’s now a matter of scientific fact, proven over and over, that children require this play and socialization time in order to function properly. Children are not simply miniature adults, capable of sitting for hours on end without much in the way of breaks. When it comes to something like EATING, this is compounded. My 11 year old has complained before that he barely has time to eat, let alone any time left to play. Since he barely eats anything at lunchtime anyhow,and never has his entire life, that’s saying something.
It’s time for our education industry (and it is, after all, an industry) to accept that the answer to actually getting through to kids is not just to increase their hours of “learning”. Let’s start to actually change the ways in which we try to teach. Let’s reconsider “hours of learning” as a primary measure of educational opportunity. It’s simply not all there is to it!
Is grade school that radically different than it was in the early 90s? I mean, the classroom back then wasn’t exactly bereft of play and socialization outside of recess and/or lunch. I can’t imagine every moment of the school day is so directed that kids aren’t doing the same not-always-paying-attention goofing off they’ve always done. You make it sound as if a 3rd grader these days is serving a prison term.
Yes, David Holmes, it is radically different, that’s what you’re not getting… I totally disagree that paents would not have been upset about this 20+ years ago. I told my parent about the issue and they are in shock by how ridiculous it is. Pressure for test results on standardized gov’t tests and larger classes have a lot to do with it. You should do more research before you make comments like the above. Kids can’t sit, and not fidget, for six hours, with minutes only to eat…hell, I liked to see an adult do it. In fact, some have tried and written articles on how they couldn’t. Kids need to move and learn physically and socialize. It’s scary enough the generation of digital age kids without social skills we are creating. It’s upsetting the schools no longer also provide an environment.
If you look in public school classrooms these days there are so many discipline measures like marbles in a jar or colored papers being “pulled” for bad behavior. All of the teachers do these, even the substitutes. The very first day of school my daughter learned about these, and before she even knew her classmates names she was taught that they would bring her down if they talked to her. By bring her down I mean get her table less points towards earning some reward. I don’t remember any of that in my day (now, my day was not the early 90’s, so you’ll have to tell me about that). Maybe I don’t remember very much about school in my day, but I remember having gym a lot, if not every day. I remember going outside to play on our huge playground and we didn’t just have 15 minutes. Yes, things are different these days. Also, we don’t strive for what we used to have if we now know it’s bad for us.
My daughter, who goes to Leschi Elementary, often comes home with a half eaten lunch and complains that she didn’t have time to finish it. 20 minutes is barely enough time to eat lunch. And, wolfing down food isn’t healthy. Is recess really part of that 20 minutes? If so, that is simply wrong and unfair. Our children are being treated like inmates. SPS must take this issue seriously and communicate honestly and transparently with the community, parents and children you serve
This is why you send your kids to $20,000 a year private school.
$30,000 actually.
because everyone can do that.
also that so many people DO send their kids to private school in this supposedly liberal town should be a huge wake up call to the sps.
I think the school day should be longer!
The Finnish education system has figured out that children learn better after regular periods of physical activity! More seat time for math or reading doesn’t improve learning, movement and recess does!
I know those kids…and I know for a fact they are 4th graders this year.
Also, 20 minutes is more than enough time to eat. It’s not thanksgiving dinner, it’s a lunch. Even the kids who bring larger lunches have enough time when they’re not messing around or talking the whole time.
I get the need for socializing…so they should eat, then talk. Recess and lunch time is separate. 20 minutes is not for lunch AND recess. It’s 20 for lunch and 15 for recess.