ROGERS — Even though school is out, administrators hope children will enjoy swinging from the bright yellow bars on the physical fitness course at Grace Hill Elementary School this summer.
A $10,000 state grant to purchase the playground equipment was based on the school’s promise to share it with the community.
“Anything of any substance — it’s so expensive for playgrounds,” said Jennie Rehl, principal at Grace Hill. “You just almost have to find a grant.”
The new equipment will be used for both recess and physical education classes, Rehl said.
At A Glance
Fine Print
The playground, physical fitness course and parking lot at Grace Hill Elementary are open to the public during daylight on weekends, school holidays and when the district isn't using the areas, according to the joint use agreement.
Source: Staff Report
“Since we’ve put that in, it’s been crowded,” said Shelby Whalen, physical education teacher at Grace Hill.
Children play soccer at school and build their leg muscles by running, Whalen said, but upper body fitness tests show students don’t have the same strength in their arms, back and stomach. Inside the gym, she has a double section of 8-foot climbing wall, but the physical fitness course with its bars and greater height works different muscles.
“Anything they’re doing they’re using their upper body muscles without thinking about it,” Whalen said.
The new equipment is durable and placed near the front of the school grounds to make it accessible to the community and the school, Whalen said.
“Kids love new stuff,” Rehl said.
The joint use grant required an agreement between the city and School District. A vote last week formalized a three-year agreement. Administrators told board members prior to the vote that it has always been the practice of the district to make its playgrounds open to the public when school is not in session.
The district is responsible for maintenance of the equipment, the city may help with inspection, if requested.
“We’re fine with that,” said Barney Hayes, parks director.
Third- through fifth-graders will use the climbing equipment, but the grant money freed up the school’s parent-teacher organization to purchase new equipment for the kindergarten through second grade playground on the south side of the school.
The group purchased a plastic dinosaur, hippo caterpillar and a small section of plastic rock wall, said Jennifer Kirkland, parent-teacher organization board member and kindergarten teacher at Grace Hill.
We’ve wanted to do playgrounds for a long time,” Kirkland said, “but where do you start?”
It took the parent group two years to raise the $6,000 so kindergartners can crawl through the hippo and sit on top the red dinosaur. People from the community helped pay for the equipment by buying candy bars or wrapping paper from the group, Kirkland said. She thinks children from nearby apartments will enjoy the additions through the summer. Her own son was thrilled with the new additions, she said.
Seventy-five to 80 students are at any given 20-minute recess, Rehl said. The kindergarten class is larger with 100 students. Now there is something for all 100 kindergartners to do, Kirkland said
The physical fitness course was installed the last week of April near the north end of the school’s parking lot. The new plastic animals from the parent-teacher organization were installed on the south side of the building during the first week of May.