One of the play structures at Salmon Bay School has been removed after a two-foot u-shape piece fell on a student.
According to Teresa Wippel with Seattle Public Schools, the principal closed the old equipment and had it assessed after the piece fell onto the second grader’s back. The student was not injured, the father told the principal. Once the equipment was deemed unsafe it was removed.
Wippel spoke with a member of the capital projects group who says there is no money in the budget to replace the old equipment. Some of the parents, according to Wippel, are talking about applying for a “self help grant,” (.pdf) although no decision has been made. (Thank you TumTum for first posting this in the forum.)
That's really too bad; I saw they'd pulled the old equipment down & was thinking it was for something new…
Of course, maybe they could plant some actual grass there instead – that's something the schools seem disturbingly short on these days!
Grass would be nice (we had huge grassy fields and a creek on our playground when I was in grade school). The problem in the cities these days is that grass is actually really expensive to keep up. Our grade school is trying to figure out how to keep all our programs going because the school district won't give us enough money to do things like have a librarian or a school counselor on staff full-time. It's awfully sad that now Salmon Bay doesn't have any play equipment for the kids for who knows how long. This whole school not being a priority thing in our government is really annoying.
Our school's playground is asphalt with woodchips under the play structures. It's OK, the kids don't really know any different … but I too grew up with a school that had a large grass field and I miss having that for my kids. A few years ago when the parents and surrounding businesses paid for a new playground the district nixed a grass field due to maintenance costs. They also said “no” to an artificial turf field because those fail after about a decade and need to be replaced. Apparently asphalt is forever.
I agree with you on all points except for the one about no play structure. The old play structure was so rickety that we would not let our children play on it four years ago. The school recently added a new, beautiful, state-of-the-art play structure. So there is something for kids to play on. However it does not accommodate very may kids – so I think they ought to replace the old one as well. Grass is great – but it turns to swamp in the winter and attracts dog poo.
Maybe they could turn that area into a mini school pea patch – give each class an area to grow something…
I do like the pea patch idea, but honestly having been (all the way once and most of the way a second time now) an elementary school parent, I'd be leery of a physical item in the school that could not survive without parent volunteers. Every single year someone has to want to do all the gardening and/or coordinate helpers AND be the point person with every teacher to get the kids outside and planting. Plus gardens have small but ongoing expenses and I don't know about Salmon Bay but our school just sent out a letter saying we need $15,000 additional parent-raised money this year due to district budget cuts. This is for stuff like having a librarian, that is more integral to the substance of a school than a garden is.
If I were the Salmon Bay PTA and failed to get a grant to cover a whole set of new equipment I'd probably spring for a dome climbing structure and put off the remainder of the playground for a year or more. The dome structures are among the cheapest items you can get, but are still fun and accommodate a reasonable number and various sizes of kid.