Recess is back in Evanston. That’s the late word from Darwin Johnson, superintendent of Evanston-Skokie School District 65, who Wednesday decided to reverse a controversial ban on recess in the wake of criticism from parents and school board officials.
Johnson last month announced he was eliminating the 15-minute optional recess from the district’s elementary schools as a way to increase classroom instruction time. Most, but not all, of the elementary schools had offered a 15-minute recess as a break from instruction.
In banning the recess, Johnson said children already are afforded a lot of play time–including during physical education classes and the lunch hour.
But on Monday, after being roundly criticized at a board meeting, Johnson told a meeting of the school board he would reconsider the decision. And by late Wednesday, he announced he would lift the recess ban.
Instead, each school’s principal and teachers will decide whether or not an elementary school has a 15-minute recess.
“Given that each school has a free play recess of 20 to 30 minutes at the lunch hour each day and that our daily teaching time is limited, I have recommended that teachers use good judgment in choosing when to give students additional recess from instructional activity,” Johnson said in a statement.
Lame duck agility: Even though most of its members are leaving office this month, the board of Wilmette School District 39 this week decided to go ahead and renew a teachers contract for the next five years.
Critics charged that the action will dilute the decision-making power of the new school board. The previous teachers contract would have expired in two more years, but the renewal is through the year 2003.
“Yes, the board has a legal right to do it, but it is terribly inappropriate . . . to make a decision of this magnitude one and a half months before an election,” said Ed McManus, a school board candidate.
Existing board members, however, argued that it would be irresponsible to stop making decisions just because their terms are to expire soon. Four slots on the seven-member board will be filled by new people in the Nov. 4 election.
The agreement offers an annual salary increase at a quarter-percent below the cost of living, based on the consumer price index, with a minimum increase of 2 percent and a maximum increase of 5 percent between 1999 and 2003.
Gavel to mouse coverage: Supreme Court watchers can take a tour of the nation’s highest judicial office by checking into the Internet. Jerry Goldman, associate professor of political science at Northwestern University, has created a Supreme Court virtual reality Web site (http://court.it-services.nwu.edu/oyez/) that offers views of the exterior of the building and interior views of its landmark spaces.
The site is still under construction, but when finished will include a database library with oral arguments and summaries of cases.
Takin’ a ride: Glenbrook North High School graduate Zachary Kaplan’s roller coaster ride just keeps on getting better and better.
Kaplan’s award-winning scale model roller coaster is on loan to the Museum of Science and Industry, where it whizzes and loops in a perpetual race outside of the Omnimax Theater.
The coaster, now named The Bullet and painted a bright red and yellow, sets the stage for the “Thrill Ride: The Science of Fun,” which takes the audience on a virtual reality trip on some of the world’s niftiest roller coasters.
