SALT LAKE CITY — Kids and educators at Lincoln Elementary School were distraught at losing more than half of their playground space.

But it turns out the small, asphalt-covered pad that serves as their temporary play area is more used than the old space ever was — with help from a full-time Playworks coach who is out there with the kids every day, keeping groups engaged throughout the hourlong recess.

"We've been able to reduce bullying, give back teaching time and decrease the number of office referrals from spats on the playground," said Chris Conard, executive director at Playworks Utah.

Kids often have up to a 10-minute transition time heading back to class after recess, Conard said. With Playworks' model, where the coach helps kids line up, cool down and make the mental shift, transition time is cut to about three to five minutes, returning 21 hours to teachers every school year.

The more structured, fun, energetic, safe and inclusive recess, Conard said, helps kids "develop social and emotional skills in arguably the most social time of their day."

"It makes recess a healthy, integral part of the day," he said.

Those skills have proven to benefit kids their whole lives through. A 2015 study published in the American Journal of Public Health states that students who develop strong social and emotional skills are twice as likely to graduate from college and 46 percent more likely than their peers to have a full-time job by age 25.

"It's well worth the money to invest in kids' activity," said Lincoln Elementary Principal JaNeal Rodriguez.

Recess, or the "unstructured time" at school, has typically left kids to their own devices, to find ways to spend their time outdoors, Rodriguez said. And it is usually spent with the campus' least capable people supervising, she added.

Changing that to include trained coaches and junior coaches, who also train and assist playground supervisors and other professionals at the schools where Playworks exists, has left kids with better opportunities to learn from their play.

"It gives them a safe place to be," Rodriguez said. "They don't have time to be naughty."

Playworks expanded to Utah in 2011, beginning with involvement at just five schools. Since then, it has grown to include 58 schools and more than 32,000 kids.

And this year, an anonymous donor has provided the nonprofit with a $2 million, five-year grant to expand its unique service — providing a safe, inclusive and healthy recess — to 250 schools by 2020.

Coaches with the program are AmeriCorps members, which limits not only the number of coaches available, but where they can be placed. Due to high demand from principals across the state, Playworks has come up with programs that include junior coaches and other professionals who travel between schools to implement the program.

It helps further their reach, getting more schools on board, said Playworks program director Ben Cromwell.

In addition to assisting at recess, coaches visit each classroom to teach kids the rules of certain games, the importance of being active and how to resolve conflict if it should arise on the playground.

And it is not uncommon to see kids smash out a quick rendition of rock-paper-scissors to arrive at a resolution.

"You'd be surprised, but Ro Sham Bo solves 98 percent of the problems at recess," Cromwell said, adding that it is a simple trick, kids will do it and it works.

The Playworks program also includes workshops that teach targeted interventions for successful recess implementation, how to map out games on a playground and conflict resolution, all of which he said helps educators and school administrators "harness the power of play."

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Playworks Utah is putting 'fun' and 'fitness' back into recess

Recess has taken a beating in recent years. Mediating petty playground fights and bullying frustrates administrators and teachers. Now, Playworks Utah is putting "fun" and "fitness" back into recess at some local schools.

Once schools take ownership of the Playworks model, the nonprofit can move on, leaving a sustainable program in place, though the length of time that takes varies depending on the school and the buy-in from administrators.

Following unprecedented progress reports, Canyons School District implemented Playworks at every school in the district this year, with the intent to get all administrators familiar with the model, creating a "new norm" for how recess is carried out throughout the district.

"Playworks has literally transformed the overall learning environment in the Title 1 schools in Canyons district," said Karen Sterling, district director.

Sterling said attendance has improved, disciplinary referrals have dropped and instructional time once lost has been recovered.

"They've directly observed behaviors at recess and know that it is working," Conard said.

The fairly new acceptance and push for increased physical activity in schools comes after years of pushback, with some districts across the country going as far as canceling recess altogether.

Most places, however, have reinstated the daily break from instruction, with administrators realizing the importance of giving kids and their adult educators a break — a much-needed chance to refresh and reset their minds.

"Kids are more engaged in their classrooms, are on task and feel more like they belong to their school community," Conard said, adding that Playworks is the only organizational tool that has statistically proven to reduce bullying, even though they aren't an anti-bullying organization.

Rodriguez confirms that she's only had two office referrals for bad behavior on the playground all year, which is a dramatic decrease from years prior at the Title 1 school.

"Bullying is a behavior that is learned. No one is born a bully," Conard said. "It is representative of the environment kids are experiencing, the hierarchy structure they often witness."

Playworks, Cromwell said, "puts kids on equal footing."

He notes that boys and girls of varying age, size and skill levels, instructed through the Playworks model, play games of basketball and foursquare, among others, together, with little conflict.

"They are playing by the same rules because we taught them the same rules," Cromwell said. "They know what to expect, and everyone has the confidence to join in a game when they want to."

There aren't many stragglers or loners on the playground at Playworks schools, but if there are, the on-site coach is aware of them. The coach is really one of the only adults at the school who works with every kid nearly every single day. He or she has the potential to make an impact, Conard said.

Coaches, whose salaries are subsidized by Playworks, often go on to teach or continue to be involved with students in some way in their future careers.

"We're excited about where we're growing," Conard said. "It just shows we can really have an education system where kids are safe and feel like they belong, where they thrive both in and outside of the classroom."

For more information about Playworks, visit www.playworks.org.

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