Students enjoy school district playground construction boom

PALMER — If your elementary school child came home after his first day raving about the new playground equipment, he was not alone.

Over the summer, 21 Mat-Su Borough schools upgrades to their playgrounds. As of Monday, only two playgrounds were still under construction.

“As the new playgrounds have opened, each school has seen excitement build in their students, with anticipation of new play growing,” Mat-Su Borough School District Spokeswoman Catherine Esary wrote in a district press release.

All-told, she said, the playgrounds cost $1.12 million and the funding came from a variety of sources.

For the traditional elementary schools — 16 of which saw playground upgrades from Willow Elementary to Butte Elementary and Trapper Creek Elementary to Sherrod Elementary — the district paid for the equipment out of voter-approved bonds.

Another playground — for Beryozva School, which serves a community of Russian Orthodox Old Believers in Willow — was paid for with an appropriation from the state Legislature.

That wasn’t the only legislative appropriation for playgrounds. The Legislature also chipped in to pay for playgrounds at four district charter schools. The state paid 70 percent of the bond money projects and rules on state matching funds — as well as other regulations — prevent the school district from spending bond money on charter schools.

“The four charter schools received separate funding from the state Legislature for their playgrounds,” Esary wrote in an email.

Twindly Bridge Charter School was one of the lucky schools to benefit from that appropriation. The school is set up as a resource for parents who home-school their students, 300 of which use the school each year.

Monday, principal Gerald Finkler was planning a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the new playground in addition to the school’s fair and despite of some relatively inclement weather with rain and wind lashing the Valley.

“The reason we make such a big deal about it is that they don’t have normal school so they appreciate everything a lot,” Finkler said of the ceremony. “Sometimes I’ll get a school bus and go on a trip and (students are) just excited about the bus.”

Valley students use playgrounds year-round. Outdoor recess is only cancelled in extreme weather — which the district defines as 10 degrees below zero, but it’s also up to the principal’s discretion. Indoor recess is the usual substitute for outdoor play.

“While indoor games are fun and engaging, sliding down a brand new slide or climbing in and out of the new contraptions are fun, fun and more fun for students!” Esary wrote in her press release.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.