Parents share concerns about recess, start times

More than a dozen Eden Prairie parents shared their concerns about recess and school start times with the Eden Prairie School Board Monday.

Several of the parents were part of a group called EP Community Advocates for Student Health, which started a petition in May 2016 to add at least 10 minutes of "unstructured outdoor recess" in the school day.

Parents also spoke on behalf of later school start times for Central Middle School and Eden Prairie High School. They said there is evidence that added recess and later start times for adolescents are positive for students' academic achievement and health.

The parents said that the district should devote a task force to studying the issues and amend its policies to include language that supports student wellness.

Jennie Pinnow said that the district's planning process "has failed to reach a meaningful number" of people. She also said that the district is ignoring the petition, signed by more than 750 people, including mainly Eden Prairie residents. She also said as part of the district's more informal, online survey, 76.5 percent of those responding said students received too little time for recess.

"Essentially the district sets up a mechanism of community input in a top down fashion, but when they don't like the result, the district challenges the validity of the very mechanism they set up," Pinnow said.

Amy Syvertsen, Ph.D., of Eden Prairie, is a director of research at Search Institute, which focuses on healthy youth development. She said that unstructured play has been linked to improvements in classroom behavior, enhanced cognitive processing, achievement and self-regulation.

"Eden Prairie should be the school district that our neighbors are looking to to emulate and keep up with," Syvertsen said.

The School Board doesn't generally respond to public comments during its meetings, but issued a statement from Superintendent Curt Tryggestad Tuesday, stating, "We greatly appreciate and value the time, concern and attention parents, staff and students have committed to this process. From the very beginning, we have built Designing Pathways around ensuring there is quality community involvement. We have heavily promoted the process through all means available to us both online and in person with nine public input sessions in Phase 1 and nearly 30 more that will unfold through the final phase. We are pleased the majority of our parent community has reported through scientifically valid random sample surveys that they are aware of the process and are supportive of the direction of the district, our communication practices, levels of trust and support for our decision making processes."

The district's statement said that a majority of parents support "the current amount of time provided for recess and physical activity as evidenced through the scientifically valid random sample survey that was conducted in July in addition to the feedback gathered through the input sessions."

On the topic of start times, Tryggestad said, "We will continue to look at this through Phase 2 of the process as a potential solution to implement the recommendations. However, more work needs to be done and community feedback considered prior to any decision."

School Board Chair Elaine Larabee said, "When you have that many people who are passionate about something it's going to make me think hard about any decisions we have to make."

Pinnow said they first raised the issue in February 2016, and were waiting for a formal response.

When asked if the process has been frustrating, she said, "They have failed to articulate a manner in which community ideas can be effectively channeled for action in the district."

"The ball is in the superintendent's and district's court," Pinnow said.

BONDS

Joel Sutter of Ehlers reported on the sale of $10,940,000 in General Obligation Facilities Maintenance Bonds. The bonds would finance part of the cost of "deferred maintenance projects included in the district's state-approved ten-year facilities plan," according to the report.

Sutter said that because of lower interest rates, the total payments over 15 years are expected to be $555,000 less than estimated before the sale.

The board approved a resolution awarding the sale of the bonds.