By Lee Reinsch
Correspondent
DE PERE – The De Pere school district is one of the only districts, if not the only one, that allows its elementary students to go outside for recess on below-zero temperature days.
“Others in the area have zero as a cutoff; we have minus 10,” said board member Dan Van Straten. “Why is that?”
The De Pere school board discussed the district’s inclement-weather policy at its meeting Monday, Dec. 10.
Dickinson Elementary School principal, Luke Herlache, led the discussion as part of his principal’s report.
“We believe it’s valuable for kids to get outside, burn off some of that energy, play, use their gross motor skills,”
Herlache said, adding that school staff monitor kids to ensure they’re wearing appropriate weather gear.
It’s a balance between how often kids are kept inside and how often, in reality, kids suffer ill effects from the cold, according to Herlache.
Other districts in the area, including the Green Bay Public School District, limit outside play to days that are above zero in temperature.
“We’re the only one that has minus 10 as a cutoff,” Van Straten said.
Elementary students in the Unified School District of De Pere get a 15-minute recess in the morning and a 20-minute recess at lunchtime, according to Herlache.
The district uses the National Weather Service because it updates its information hourly and posts local windchill temperatures.
Herlache shared a chart delineating windchill as it relates to air temperature, wind speed, and the length of time it takes for a person to be at risk for frostbite.
For the De Pere School District, a windchill factor ranging from minus 18 to minus 22 tends to be the cutoff line when kids are kept inside at recess.
Depending on wind speed, that can mean an air temperature range of minus 11 to minus 16 degrees Fahrenheit.
At those temperatures, a person is at risk of frostbite in 30 minutes.
There’s a difference between frostbite and hypothermia, said Superintendent Ben Villarruel.
Children have better circulation and higher energy levels than adults that help protect them from the effects of the cold, he said.
“Kids have so much energy, and with all of the activity and running around that they do at recess, it would take a long time for an active young person to get hypothermia,” Villarruel said.
Frostbite happens when blood flow goes to the internal organs away from extremities and tissue freezes, according to the Mayo Clinic.
With hypothermia, the body loses the ability to warm up on its own.
It generally happens when the core body temperature drops from its normal 98.6 Fahrenheit to about 95 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
The National Weather Service in Green Bay puts out windchill advisories when they reach minus 20, and warnings when they plummet to minus 35 or lower.
On days when kids are made to stay indoors for recess, they’re encouraged to play in the larger rooms of the schools such as the gym.
“We have a cart of games for them to play,” Herlache said. “It’s not ideal, but it works.”
Villarruel said the school district tends to get calls from parents early in the winter season, but the calls subside once people get acclimated to the winter.
The issue was one of several discussion items.
No change was made to the policy on inclement weather.