Supervision at recess in elementary school question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Maybe this is an ignorant question as we see new to the area, but why on earth is this the case? It seems to be a huge liability. I mean, I can see a situation where a child could easily wander off or be abducted and literally no one would know. And I don’t understand why they don’t pay paraeducators more, if that is the reason they can’t hire. Where are all the taxpayer dollars going, as well as the massive infusion of funds MCPS received from COVID relief? It makes no sense to me.

There was an actually an incident at our ES where several kids left campus during recess. It was a big deal. I have no idea what the ratios are. We’ve been told parents cannot volunteer to supervise recess (per MCPS policy) so I’m curious about the previous poster asking for parents to volunteer.

I would be concerned about a school not allowing parents at recess. It sounds like they have something to hide.

Not necessarily. Parents aren't MCPS employees and trained on how to descalate child conflict. And they also could show favoritism toward their child. Do you really want parents policing other people's kids' behavior?

You must not have volunteered at an MCPS recess. Yes, I will take parents volunteering any day. When I volunteered on a regular basis when my daughter was in K, I regularly went back and forth to the nurses' office alond with several other parents because so many kids had injuries, bloody noses, etc. MCPS absolutely needs parent volunteers to make it work. Would it be better if they had an adequate number of professionals doing it? Absolutely. But given that they don't, it's not doable without a lot of parents regularly volunteering, at least in the younger grades.

Again, we've explicitly been told that parents volunteering to supervise lunch/recess is NOT allowed? So are we being lied to? Which schools DO allow it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that there’s too little supervision but I also work at a school and I can tell you there’s nothing we can do. We just do not have enough staff to run the place. Here’s who we have had supervising recess lately: the counselor, the assistant principal, the secretaries, the intervention teacher, and the staff development teacher. These people all have important places to be but we just don’t have enough staff.

When I was a kid, teachers went out to recess with you. But now they have to do a 1.5 hour planning block in the middle of the day every day.

1.5 hour planning block? In what universe is this?

At our Silver Spring elementary teachers get 2 hours of planning per day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that there’s too little supervision but I also work at a school and I can tell you there’s nothing we can do. We just do not have enough staff to run the place. Here’s who we have had supervising recess lately: the counselor, the assistant principal, the secretaries, the intervention teacher, and the staff development teacher. These people all have important places to be but we just don’t have enough staff.

When I was a kid, teachers went out to recess with you. But now they have to do a 1.5 hour planning block in the middle of the day every day.

We moved out of state. When we were at our mcps elementary school, we saw all the problems described above. They had 120 kids out with 2 paras, our kids routinely had stories of fights, bullying, and injuries. They also weren’t allowed any balls or sports equipment because the low supervision meant kids would hit each other with the sports equipment. So, 120 kids were out in an unfenced field with one play structure that about 15 kids could use.

New elementary—teachers go with their class to recess plus paras and specials teachers rotating through. About one teacher for every 10 kids. Multiple play structures on playground, organized games occurring, no fights, very few injuries.

Something is seriously wrong in MCPS…our new district isn’t “wealthy,” but, they can somehow afford to give the kids a nice recess instead of a prison yard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a minimum adult to child ratio that MCPS schools must maintain during recess periods? I’ve begun volunteering at my child’s school at recess because I keep hearing from the kids about problems at recess. I am shocked at how few staff there are supervising and how many kids are fighting with each other. Is there some minimum threshold they have to have to maintain a safe environment?

Bullying happens frequently during recess. I used to volunteer often and I had to raise it time to time. Too many kids and if you have special need kids then it's almost guaranteed that they will face some problem due to lack of supervision.

Yes, this was the case with our SN son and a principal who did not permit parent volunteers at the school (with the exception of holiday party and open house).
As a result of son and lack of supervision, he was held in from recess many of the days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that there’s too little supervision but I also work at a school and I can tell you there’s nothing we can do. We just do not have enough staff to run the place. Here’s who we have had supervising recess lately: the counselor, the assistant principal, the secretaries, the intervention teacher, and the staff development teacher. These people all have important places to be but we just don’t have enough staff.

When I was a kid, teachers went out to recess with you. But now they have to do a 1.5 hour planning block in the middle of the day every day.

We moved out of state. When we were at our mcps elementary school, we saw all the problems described above. They had 120 kids out with 2 paras, our kids routinely had stories of fights, bullying, and injuries. They also weren’t allowed any balls or sports equipment because the low supervision meant kids would hit each other with the sports equipment. So, 120 kids were out in an unfenced field with one play structure that about 15 kids could use.

New elementary—teachers go with their class to recess plus paras and specials teachers rotating through. About one teacher for every 10 kids. Multiple play structures on playground, organized games occurring, no fights, very few injuries.

Something is seriously wrong in MCPS…our new district isn’t “wealthy,” but, they can somehow afford to give the kids a nice recess instead of a prison yard.

Same at our school!

[Anonymous]

mcps has the money but isn't choosing to prioritize safety. having so little supervision during recess in its 106 elementary schools is negligent.

hope it doesn't take a serious widely publicized incident to force mcps to finally make keeping young children safe a priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:mcps has the money but isn't choosing to prioritize safety. having so little supervision during recess in its 106 elementary schools is negligent.

hope it doesn't take a serious widely publicized incident to force mcps to finally make keeping young children safe a priority.

I’m a parent and I want to raise this issue at our school and across the county. We should not be waiting for something horrific to happen to address this. 1:50 or worse is simply unsafe. Who can I talk to? School board? Administrators in the system?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:mcps has the money but isn't choosing to prioritize safety. having so little supervision during recess in its 106 elementary schools is negligent.

hope it doesn't take a serious widely publicized incident to force mcps to finally make keeping young children safe a priority.

I’m a parent and I want to raise this issue at our school and across the county. We should not be waiting for something horrific to happen to address this. 1:50 or worse is simply unsafe. Who can I talk to? School board? Administrators in the system?

Grass roots voter organizing. School board members are political figures, they listen if their seat is threatened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We appreciate when parents are willing to volunteer their time and it’s the only long term solution. We are short staffed bc we are allocated so few hours for para support and secondly, paras are not applying for these positions since they can now make a higher hourly rate working at fast food chains and not have to deal with rude and unruly children. Parents HAVE to step in and support or this will not be sustainable. I think it’s reasonable for parents to give up one hour of their work day a few days a year to be our partner in all of this. I’d be willing to give up my limited pto if my child’s school requested volunteers.

However, it would also be great if parents supported schools by modeling and teaching their kids how to behave at school. Teachers remind the kids every day, but are often ignored. Parents can help by taking their kids to a park over the weekend and see how they interact with others (be present with your child and off your phone). If they misbehave, intervene, make them apologize, and hold them accountable for their actions with having consequences at home.

No, MCPS needs to cut back on its woke agenda which is generously funded and has nothing to do with providing FAPE. They run a study how PTAs differ in different parts of the county (the variable being high/low income), and concluded that all PTA money is better be pooled together and managed centrally to ensure every school gets the same amount. This is what happens when parents step and fund raise - the county funds a study to justify a money grab. They spend more than 15 mil a year on lawyers to fight IEP - our taxes at work... And then you have a brilliant thought that parents have to do for free what county should pay its employees to do? Should I also pave potholes and police my own street during my working hours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Maybe this is an ignorant question as we see new to the area, but why on earth is this the case? It seems to be a huge liability. I mean, I can see a situation where a child could easily wander off or be abducted and literally no one would know. And I don’t understand why they don’t pay paraeducators more, if that is the reason they can’t hire. Where are all the taxpayer dollars going, as well as the massive infusion of funds MCPS received from COVID relief? It makes no sense to me.

There was an actually an incident at our ES where several kids left campus during recess. It was a big deal. I have no idea what the ratios are. We’ve been told parents cannot volunteer to supervise recess (per MCPS policy) so I’m curious about the previous poster asking for parents to volunteer.

Parents volunteer at our ES every day

[Anonymous]

I don’t think recess duty should fall on parents, sorry. Kids aren’t well supervised but who cares? They’re 5-11 years old. They’re not babies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:mcps has the money but isn't choosing to prioritize safety. having so little supervision during recess in its 106 elementary schools is negligent.

hope it doesn't take a serious widely publicized incident to force mcps to finally make keeping young children safe a priority.

I’m a parent and I want to raise this issue at our school and across the county. We should not be waiting for something horrific to happen to address this. 1:50 or worse is simply unsafe. Who can I talk to? School board? Administrators in the system?

Kids this age used to play in neighborhoods unsupervised all day every day. You want to complain? Get support inside classrooms for the love of god. Recess is the least of my concerns. I’d love to see assistant teachers in every ES classroom, k-5. And not a para who will be pulled in 50 different directions. A dedicated person who works alongside the teacher every day to make sure groups are pulled, work is marked and returned in a timely manner, students are held accountable for behavior, things are documented, etc. I guarantee you teachers would stop leaving in droves if they had supportive coteachers to help keep up with everything. The current system is not sustainable for ES teachers. And it’s not the pay that’s the problem. It’s the lack of support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Maybe this is an ignorant question as we see new to the area, but why on earth is this the case? It seems to be a huge liability. I mean, I can see a situation where a child could easily wander off or be abducted and literally no one would know. And I don’t understand why they don’t pay paraeducators more, if that is the reason they can’t hire. Where are all the taxpayer dollars going, as well as the massive infusion of funds MCPS received from COVID relief? It makes no sense to me.

The Covid money had to be used for specific things, so they can’t just move it around to use it efficiently.

It’s like because it always has been. There are empty para jobs everywhere so creating more won’t help without people to fill them.

Actually the relief money was basically a blank check, and many districts are just sitting on the cash.

It actually wasn’t a blank check. There were specific things each type of funding could be used towards. Which makes it hard in some ways to spend it efficiently on what each district really needs and some school districts have been creative in how they’ve worded/allocated to pay for things needed. Further the finding is only short term, so if you raise starting salaries with the funds, at some point you have to move those amounts into your actual budget in order to be able to continue to fund the position long term. And there is the natural consequence of likely needing to raise other salaries in order to keep up. That’s not to say that Para salaries should not be raised, but it should be acknowledged that ESSR funding is not a sustainable source of revenue by which to pay for the increase.

Thank you for that logical answer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that there’s too little supervision but I also work at a school and I can tell you there’s nothing we can do. We just do not have enough staff to run the place. Here’s who we have had supervising recess lately: the counselor, the assistant principal, the secretaries, the intervention teacher, and the staff development teacher. These people all have important places to be but we just don’t have enough staff.

When I was a kid, teachers went out to recess with you. But now they have to do a 1.5 hour planning block in the middle of the day every day.

We moved out of state. When we were at our mcps elementary school, we saw all the problems described above. They had 120 kids out with 2 paras, our kids routinely had stories of fights, bullying, and injuries. They also weren’t allowed any balls or sports equipment because the low supervision meant kids would hit each other with the sports equipment. So, 120 kids were out in an unfenced field with one play structure that about 15 kids could use.

New elementary—teachers go with their class to recess plus paras and specials teachers rotating through. About one teacher for every 10 kids. Multiple play structures on playground, organized games occurring, no fights, very few injuries.

Something is seriously wrong in MCPS…our new district isn’t “wealthy,” but, they can somehow afford to give the kids a nice recess instead of a prison yard.

At our school they don't have balls and toys for recess because the kids damage them and the paras won't pick them up and our pe teacher got tired ofbuying more

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that there’s too little supervision but I also work at a school and I can tell you there’s nothing we can do. We just do not have enough staff to run the place. Here’s who we have had supervising recess lately: the counselor, the assistant principal, the secretaries, the intervention teacher, and the staff development teacher. These people all have important places to be but we just don’t have enough staff.

When I was a kid, teachers went out to recess with you. But now they have to do a 1.5 hour planning block in the middle of the day every day.

Well, when I was a kid, most kids went home for lunch. So the kids playing on the playground or in the closed off play street weren’t supervised at all until the teachers came out to pick up their classes. Things change. Wow.
And good for the teachers if they actually get to use a genuine planning period, eat lunch, and regroup for the onslaught of the rest of the school day.