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If Parents Pay, Students Play

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 24, 2007

VALRICO - It used to be so easy - just ring the bell and the children would head outdoors for recess and unstructured play.

But life today is more complicated, and there are more demands being made on the school day, so many demands that recess has disappeared from many schools.

Cimino Elementary Parent-Teacher Association members wanted their children to have 15 minutes a day of outdoor play, to hang out with friends or start a game.

Stacy Muia, PTA president, said the group pays up to $8,000 a year for two school aides to monitor the recess time, which is 15 minutes carved from time the students are assigned to the cafeteria for lunch.

This year, the PTA is holding a yearlong fundraiser for the recess and other PTA projects. The group is selling tiles for a minimum of $50 each. At family nights throughout the year, the PTA will host tile-painting events. Parents and children can decorate the tiles, which will then be fired and installed on a stairway at the school.

Michelle Pignataro was decorating a tile with her daughter, Tessa, 6, at a recent painting session. Her older daughter, Leah, who graduated from the school last year, and her toddler, Johnny, also attended.

'The children love recess,' she said. 'It's a time for them to just go out and play like we did when we went to school. With the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and everything else, it's hard to fit recess into the program, and not every school does it. Maybe if more schools learn what we are doing here, they will do the same.'

Liz Bleau

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