Parents/Caregivers: Please add your name if you’d like to see a more balanced recess policy at Renaissance! We are all in favor of safety and of course students need to get to class on time. However, the children are currently lining up multiple times while transitioning from lunch to recess. They are required to remain quiet while in line and are penalized as a group for the actions of a few. Students are reporting that this sometimes reduces their recess time to only 11 to 13 minutes. The Renaissance school day is super long, from 8:20am to 4:05pm. Our kids need their recess!

Principal Wilson, Superintendent Bolandi, and the School Board: As parents, community members and taxpayers of Montclair, we respectfully call on the Superintendent and Board of Education to commit to, enforce, and monitor a recess policy that is healthy for the physical and emotional development of our kids. Recess must never be taken away as a punishment, or even threatened to do so. Recess isn’t a privilege; it is a healthy part of middle school students’ physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development. Movement, play, and socialization help children self-regulate, which leads to better-behaved, more engaged students who can more readily focus on and retain information from their lessons.

Here are the changes we would like to see:

• Allow for at least 20 minutes of real recess time (not including time spent lining up and waiting to be released). With our long school day, this is critical.
• Do not allow recess to be taken away as a punishment, or even threaten to do so. Do not punish the group for the actions of a few.
• Lessen the amount of time the kids spend standing in line.
• Allow the kids to talk if they have to be lined up- this is critical to their social and emotional growth.
• Additional options for indoor recess. Currently on offer are two movie rooms (where they must be silent) and one quiet room for doing homework. Parents are trying to find balance with regard to screen time. Let's instead offer a space where kids can play easy set-up games, listen to music, hang out, talk, and move around a bit.

If you support these changes, please sign your name below.