Elementary school students will get a longer recess starting this fall.
White County Schools Director Kurt Dronebarger told the School Board Thursday night state lawmakers passed the measure to increase recess for elementary school students to 40 minutes per day.
“There’s just no more minutes in the day,” Dronebarger said. “We keep conveying this to our legislators that they’ve already filled every minute of the day with various items. It’s so every time that they add something it’s got to take away from something else, so to answer your questions, it will come out of instructional time.”
Dronebarger said he plans to meet with principals to come up with a plan to meet the state law.
“It’s about an extra 15 minutes per day,” Dronebarger said. “So it’s going to come from maybe some of the RTI time and certainly maybe the ELA and math, we’re going to have to pull some minutes to make this happen.”
Dronebarger said it is important to note that he wants to stay true to the current schedule which he thinks is good. Dronebarger said that schedule has been in place for 18 or more years.
“It’s a great schedule, other districts, you know, are trying to copy it and are envious of that,” Dronebarger said. “We’ve been able to implement everything that the state has handed down through that schedule and we’re trying to stay true to that, But those minutes will have to come from instruction time.”
