Everyone pitches in when it comes to play(ground)

There were parents and teachers and paras, children and School Board members out in the sun, sweating at Union Street School. There was even a superintendent of schools behind a wheelbarrow.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100723/NEWS02/707239891/1003/NEWS02     # # # # Everyone pitches in when it comes to play(ground)  •  Rutland Herald  •  By Susan Smallheer Staff Writer - Published: July 23, 2010  •  SPRINGFIELD – There were parents and teachers and paras, children and School Board members out in the sun, sweating at Union Street School. There was even a superintendent of schools behind a wheelbarrow.  •  About two dozen people in shorts and T-shirts were hard at work at noontime Thursday, digging holes, mixing concrete, schlepping concrete, fixing the new swing set. They had a lot of work to go to finish the new playground at the renovated elementary school, which come next month will house all the towns mid-elementary school students.  •  Today, the volunteers will focus their attention on building a new playground at Elm Hill School, the newly designated early elementary school, which like Union has recently undergone a top-to-bottom renovation and expansion.  •  Jayne Smith, the super volunteer and mother who was behind the new playgrounds, said last year’s “Pebble Beach” playground would soon be a thing of the past, and in Smith’s mind, not a moment too soon. Funding for the two new playgrounds is coming from a variety of sources, from fundraising projects to the school budget, and funds from the town’s bond vote that funded the school renovation project. Each playground will cost about $35,000 to $40,000 in equipment and supplies, and limited labor.  •  Smith said she got involved last year, after the first wave of renovations left the school without its usual playground. Smith and others got to work and using the only flat piece of land left in what essentially was a construction zone, built a 70-foot by 70-foot playground, paved with pea stone. Never again! Smith said.  •  The pea stone was a disaster, she said, with Grade 3 para-educator Pam Donnelly adding that the peastone didn’t drain well in the winter and became icy and that kids got hurt when they fell on the playground because of the unforgiving nature of the stone.  •  In its place is “engineered” bark mulch, which knits together and forms a smooth mat under the playground apparatus, but hard enough to accommodate children in wheelchairs, she said.  •  Smith said that the playground building was a great community effort, with many Springfield businesses sending everything from doughnuts and coffee to bricks.  •  Frank Perotti, the superintendent of schools, was incognito in a new goatee, but he was busy wheeling barrows full of concrete for the swing set’s foundation.  •  “I grew up on a dairy farm and you have to know how to do everything,” said Perotti, who expertly controlled his heavy load and dumped it in the hole.  •  Perotti was the early advocate for Springfield consolidating its elementary schools, and the town voted to close Park Street School, which had started life as the original Springfield High School. Closing Park Street meant that the two remaining schools needed to be expanded. And adding to further change, the Springfield School Board voted earlier this spring to change the way the schools were organized. Elm Hill School now will see all Springfield youngsters in kindergarten through Grade 2, while third-graders to fifth-graders will go to Union Street.  •  “This is the fun stuff,” said Perotti. “You see the rewards of your work and this is great community service,” he said, waiting for another batch of concrete to be scraped out of the cement mixer.  •  “This is very tangible. Some of the police things and legal things .... this will help the students with their physical education,” he said.  •  Joan Cioffi, a mother and teacher at Riverside, said some of the playground equipment at Park Street School could be saved and reinstalled in one of the new playgrounds. She said the various pieces of equipment came after customer research.  •  “We asked the kids what they wanted and they said “swirly slide,” “climby things” and a “zipline,” Cioffi said.  •  “They wanted things to climb on, things to climb through,” she said of the younger students.  •  Sure enough, there were swirly slides, climby things and a zipline at the playground, ready to be installed.  •  Smith said the school district’s decision to no longer have neighborhood schools meant that the playgrounds could be geared more to specific age groups.  •  The new Elm Hill School playground will be twice the size of the Union Street School, even though each school will have 300 students. Union Street is having a kick ball area, a basketball court separate from the parking lot.  •  Smith said construction on Elm Hill is scheduled to start today, with a large group of volunteers needed on Saturday.  •  Anyone interested in volunteering is encouraged to contact Smith through unionstreetpta@live.com, she said.  •  School Board member Jeanice Garfield was busy working and she praised Smith’s devotion to the project.  •  “Jayney Smith has been the driver, she’s been tenacious,” Garfield said.  •  Smith’s young son wanted to know what tenacious meant, Garfield said.  •  It was a compliment.  •