New playground equipment almost ready for recess

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

If some students at Washington Elementary seem a little anxious to get back to school next month, it might be due to something that’s waiting for them.

Recess.

Some nice new playground equipment will be ready for the students when they return to class on Aug. 23 — in fact, some students have been spotted playing on the new equipment already, and it isn’t quite finished.

Washington Principal Kara Shannon said the playground equipment is right on schedule. Most of it is installed, although there is some cement work that remains, as well as some fencing that needs to be put up. She said that all the new equipment will be safe and handicapped accessible.

“It’s really super-safe — there aren’t these large structures and tall structures that they can fall off of. It’s accessible for toddlers up through 10-year-olds,” Shannon said.

One playground, for preschool-kindergarten students, is on the south side of the elementary building, while the equipment for grades 1-2 is behind the building.

“We do have some really cool equipment. We have a slide called the ‘avalanche’ slide. They can go down one side and still pull themselves up, using their arm strength,” Shannon told the school board last spring. “We’ve put everything at ground level, and the whole surface uses rubber matting, so it can be accessed by wheelchairs and strollers for families.”

The school board unanimously approved bids to Boland Recreation for $188,729 for the equipment for grades 1-2 and $56,271 for the PK-K equipment in May. The playground projects are being funded by Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) funds.

The total budget for both projects is $250,000, with the remainder of funds to be used for new fencing and cement. When that’s in place, the project will be complete and ready for official use by the students — although it’s suspected that some more may sneak in before the first day of school to give the equipment an early tryout.