Village Elementary School students and parents protested new recess rules holding signs with the words “Let Kids Play” and “Prison” during a demonstration outside the Coronado Unified School District office while trustees met in closed session.
Concerned Village Parents, an informal coalition of more than 50 Coronado families, organized the demonstration calling on district leadership to end designated playground zones and color-coded wristbands that have been in place since the first day of school on Aug. 10, according to a news release by the group.
Administration said the new rules come from a partnership between the school and Playworks for a framework that implements zoned play through which students rotate in phases that begin with an assigned zone, a preferred zone and eventually an open recess environment that balances student freedom with safety and effective adult supervision.
Over a dozen elementary school students and their parents voiced their concerns during public comment at an Aug. 20 School Board meeting.
Eric Grobe, whose daughters attend Village, told the board the terms being used to describe recess expectations resemble a prison.
“End the mandatory zones, restore to open recess, provide active supervision and hold individual students accountable for their behaviors,” Grobe told trustees when they reconvened to open session.
According to Brian Schmidt, a parent of a first grader and fourth grader at Village, parents were not notified about the changes until the first week of school.
“Nobody knew this was happening until it was thrust upon us,” said Schmidt.
Trustees will revisit recess concerns at a future board meeting in a staff report.
“We firmly believe that structure and choice work together to ensure both student freedom and a safe playground environment,” said the district in a statement.
Emotional toll
Village Principal Peter Kuhns told parents, in an email on Aug. 10, the decision for structured zones during recess and lunch is a response to student behavior data as well as significant feedback from staff and school community identifying the periods as areas where stronger supervision, clearer expectations, and more predictable routines were needed.
Elementary school children, some breaking into tears, told Coronado trustees recent changes are making them cry and lose sleep at night.
“I feel like school is trying to control what I do,” said one fourth grade student. “Whenever I want to play volleyball, I never get to play because all the volleyball players are separate. So, I can’t play what I want.”
“Please don’t keep me in a zone,” said another student.
In a statement the district said “site administration has implemented a structured, three-phase approach to recess that balances safety and adult supervision with student autonomy.”
The district said legal counsel verified its structure complies with California SB 291 and is prioritizing a positive, inclusive and safe environment where students can play, socialize and learn.
The statement said the first phase spans the first two weeks of school wherein students are assigned specific play zones to learn playground expectations, spatial boundaries and safety procedures guided by campus assistants.
According to the district, parents have been notified of the transition to phase two, effective Aug. 24, allowing students to choose a zone and playmates on a daily basis.
A third phase which the district calls its “long-term goal” is an open recess environment with minimal restrictions, limiting capacity across specific activities requiring focused supervision, the statement continues.
Kuhns’ email said similar zoned playground structures are also currently in place at Silver Strand Elementary.
The district said campus assistants supervising recess at both schools have completed training through Playworks.
According to the nonprofit’s website, Playworks’ mission is to improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.
“In alignment with Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework and a goal of improving school climate, this model explicitly teaches and reinforces expectations: safe, respectful, responsible, and kind behavior before gradually increasing student autonomy,” said the district in a statement.
In response to the district statement, Concerned Village Parents provided the media with a letter on Aug. 21 asking the district to reverse the policy and employ the zones for supervisors, teachers, and staff like other school districts.
According to the letter, the district statement differs from a separate one issued to parents during a town hall meeting the week prior contemplating only two phases.
“We would all be much safer if we had all choice removed from our lives and had a governmental entity mandate where we get to go, who we get to associate with, and what we get to do during that time we are allowed to engage in that association,” said the group in its letter. “That, however, is not consistent with American ideals of freedom, individuality, and personal responsibility.”
Board President Renee Cavanaugh said wristbands match color coded zones, which prevent hundreds of kids from playing on one structure at a time.
“I think there is some room for improvement,” Cavanaugh told The Coronado News.
Advocacy to continue
Schmidt called CUSD’s Phase II “an administrative shell game.”
“Forcing elementary children to select a single assigned area in advance is not free movement—it is scheduled containment,” said Schmidt. “It does nothing to solve the core problem: Children are still barred from crossing playground boundaries to play with friends, siblings, or classmates in other zones during recess.”
Schmidt told the Coronado News unstructured recess is a statutory right, not a privilege that well-behaved children must earn back through behavioral compliance phases.
According to Schmidt, over 93% of Village Elementary School students have zero or one incident history.
“Punishing and restricting the entire student body for the actions of a tiny fraction, while making them jump through bureaucratic hoops just to choose where they stand the next day, is unacceptable,” added Schmidt.
Apart from a return to unstructured free play, Schmidt would ideally like to see green spaces on campus to accommodate all students.
Schmidt said there is mixed reception of the structure among parents at Silver Strand.
“The Playworks model is different than what they’re selling it to us,” said Schmidt.
Geetha Ramani, a human development professor at the University of Maryland’s College of Education told Capital News Service that targeting play is potentially a piece of the solution to the nation’s growing behavioral problems in elementary schools.
In another email to parents Kuhns said the open recess environment will resume once students consistently comply with the expectations of the campus supervisors, along with an observed decrease in the frequency of major behaviors on the playground.
According to Kuhn’s email, there has been less time spent managing issues following recess and lunch, and minimal incidents and injuries to students across the grade levels.
Schmidt said a vague, open-ended promise of a far-off complete unrestricted play in Phase III is not enough.
“We are demanding that CUSD release a clear, published, and measurable timeline with explicit criteria and dates for the complete elimination of zone restrictions and mandatory wristbands,” said Schmidt.
Prior to that email, kids also protested the zones with chalk drawings which Schmidt said the school washed away.
CUSD said it supports student voice, and encourages expression and respectful communication, but requires prior approval for any signs, chalking, or messaging on district property.
“Unapproved displays will be removed by maintenance staff,” said the district in its statement.
Schmidt said prior administrative approval for weekend chalk art on the city owned sidewalk is absurd and highlights the exact culture of over-restriction at the school that the community has been protesting.
“Public sidewalks outside the school fence belong to the city, not the school district. Sending school maintenance workers off campus to hose away kids’ peaceful chalk drawings isn’t just an administrative overreaction — it is an unauthorized overreach onto public property to censor dissenting student voices in violation of their First Amendment rights,” said Schmidt.
Cavanaugh requested additional information about recess to be scheduled in an upcoming meeting.
Meanwhile for Schmidt, conversations addressing the school’s structure with district and school leaders “feels like it kind of goes in circles.”
“We will not stop advocating until our children’s right to true, unrestricted play is fully restored,” added Schmidt.
In other matters:
- Priscila Rude, a Coronado Police Department officer, was named the new school resource officer.
- CUSD welcomed new administrators including: Shauna Stueve-Malone, Village Elementary School dean of students; Haylee Lavender, Coronado Middle School assistant principal; Richard Ayala, Coronado High School assistant principal.
- The board moved its Dec. 10 meeting to Tuesday, Dec. 15 at 4 p.m. at the district office when it plans for newly elected trustees to be sworn in.
The next regular board meeting is set for 4 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10 at the district office.
