ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County parents are fighting to bring daily recess back to schools.
Parents presented their case during the pre-agenda meeting at the Ronald Blocker Center on Tuesday evening.
Orange County school officials said at the meeting that there should be some recommended guidelines when it comes to recess, but say it doesn't rise to the level to enact a new board policy.
Superintendent Barbara Jenkins said the board wasn't opposed to recess, but it boiled down to lack of time and they can't trim back instructional minutes.
"We do not disagree that recess can be good for children," Jenkins said. "It's just about having enough minutes in the day to get it all done."
10-year-old Carson Ashby, a 5th grader at Avalon Elementary came with his family.
"Everyone in my classroom is like 'Can we please have recess? Can we please have recess?'" said Ashby.
Ashby compared learning to a sponge.
"If they don't get a lot of playtime think of it like a sponge in water, the sponge absorbs all the water and that's all of your energy and the stuff that you've been learning all day. You need a break to let it all out so when you squeeze that sponge all the water drains out, same with the energy," he continued.
Orange County mothers were armed with a petition and research citing benefits to students who have 20 to 30 minutes of unstructured downtime each day. Speakers included a representative from the PTA and a pediatrician.
The petition has more than 1,200 signatures, but the group of mothers said they will continue to fight the issue.
This school year, parents in Lake County took a similar fight to the school board; the superintendent agreed to at least 60 minutes a week.
The Orange County school district spokesperson said it is up to each school. Right now, 100 out of 123 elementary schools have some form of recess.
The district said with the new Florida Standards, a majority of teachers have expressed concerns that there is not enough time to teach the essential standards.
The survey results were 57 percent of teachers in 49 schools. Recess is left up to each principal.